Drifting apart together, a harry potter fanfic

Outline:

Hermione Granger the first female Muggleborn Minister of Magic, is up for re-election soon. She is currently getting an amicable divorce from Ronald Weasley given they had drifted apart and had nothing in common anymore.30 years of small changes by a minor character in their lives, snowball into something they must tackle together.

1. 2021 Ministry of magic beginning of summer break

A 41-year-old Draco Malfoy barged into the Minister of Magic's office angrily screaming. "Hermione how could you not tell me?! Do you know how detrimental this is for our campaign?!" He stood fuming in the doorway clad in his impeccably tailored oxford grey robes. He had finally cut off his long hair giving him a more youthful look, but his bangs were now in disarray as if he had just pulled at his hair before storming in the door.

Hermione Granger, 42, the first femaleMuggleborn Minister of Magic, was currently signing one of hundreds of documents stacked on her desk, not even bothering looking up at his tantrum, wearing a royal purple boat neck long sleeved frock.

She flicked her left hand nonchalantly making the door close behind Draco pushing him undignifiedly inside the office before she finally looked up, her fiery brown eyes making him freeze in place. "First of all, Draco this is my campaign not ours. I'm the one running for bloody re-election not you." Her crown of curls seemed to puff up slightly from the magic she exuded after that little display of wandless magic.

Draco didn't even straighten up after that unwelcomed shove and walked right up to her desk. "I'm your bloody campaign manager! We already had to deal with the whole time-turner debacle and now a divorce!? Are you trying to further antagonize the Purebloods? Draco said slightly hysterical.

Hermione looked at him as if he was a child. "Oh, grow up Draco! People get divorced all the time!"

"Not Purebloods!" He sighed dramatically and walked over to the chair sitting down like if the past seconds had drained him of life, he covered his eyes with his hand feeling a migraine coming imminently. "They just stop shagging and grow old and bitter in separate wings of their manors." He said listlessly gesticulating with his left hand.

Hermione looked at him with sympathy and took another document to sign. "Well, I'll just have to be the first femaledivorcedMuggleborn Minister." She said casually.

He looked back at her annoyed. "I can't spin this in your favour!"

She wasn't grasping the seriousness of the situation.

He started rubbing his temple. "Maybe if the weasel had an affair…?" he said strongly suggesting they made up one.

"He didn't." Hermione said emphatically putting an end to that suggestion still signing more documents.

"HE'S A BLOODY WAR HERO WOMAN!" Draco yelled frustrated.

"SO AM I!" Hermione stood up slamming her hands on the desk. Her curls puffing up slightly again making Draco gulp audibly.

Merlin, she was terrifying.

"You have to give me something to work with here." Draco said pleadingly.

"We are friends!" Hermione sighed impatiently. "This is an amicable divorce; we just fell out of love."

"Love has nothing to do with marriage!" Draco scoffed.

"Well, it bloody well should!" Hermione said slightly outraged. "And you can't lie to me Draco, you loved Astoria!" She blurted out without thinking.

"Hermione!" Draco glared at her angrily. They had agreed not to broach that subject.

For the first time since he stepped in the room, he saw Hermione genuinely mortified.

"I'm sorry..." She said in a small voice averting her gaze.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. He couldn't stay mad at her.

"I did... But I learned to love her, I didn't in the beginning... You know that full well..."

The silence hung between them for a beat.

Draco remembered something he deemed brilliant. "Doesn't your muggle therapy work for that!?" Draco asked hopeful.

Hermione was genuinely surprised he recalled that knowledge. "We tried...for years... It's called marriage counselling; we just…want very different things out of life."

Draco's face fell, he covered his eyes again. "This is a nightmare."

"Draco, you're not the one getting the divorce." Hermione said exasperated with his drama.

"No…but I'm the one who must bloody well suffer for it!" He said standing up angrily ready to storm out and research how to spin this.

"How did you find out about it anyway?" Hermione asked honestly puzzled.

"Rose told Scorpious and he had the good sense to warn me." Draco said straightening out his robes readying himself to depart.

Hermione sighed. "You're right...Ishould have told you." She said sincerely.

"Merlin, if I wasn't so stressed right now, I would pick those 2 words out of my memory and replay them on loop in my pensive forever. Can you say them again a little louder please?" He said back to his usually obnoxious demeanour.

"Get out Malfoy! I have a lot of work to do." Hermione said bitingly.

"I'm Malfoy again...Well on the bright side, we won't have to change the stationary, given you never took his name." He said leisurely taking his time to leave.

"...He should have taken mine..." Hermione grumbled under her breath.

Draco closed the door behind him when he said in a sigh for no one to hear: "…I, would've gladly..."

2. 1998 Hogwarts September after the war

Some changes were made for Hogwarts' first ever "8th year generation". For starters, one common room for all, since unity between houses was of the utmost importance. Alcohol was permitted in said common room given they were all of age. And Head Boy and Head Girl shared a two-bedroom in-house suite.

"Professor McGonagall, I'm not entirely sure that I understand the thought behind this decision." Hermione said while standing in the middle of Headmistress McGonagall's office.

"Well Granger it really isn't that hard to understand, mister Malfoy was always second in your class, inter-house cooperation is the first step in restoring this school's morale... and he is currently on probation, so you can help me out keeping an eye on him and keeping him out of trouble." McGonagall quickly mumbled that last part.

A knock on the door startled both witches and after McGonagall said enter, a slightly dishevelled looking Draco Malfoy entered the office.

"Headmistress McGonagall I believe there was a mistake in my room assignment..." His expression slightly unhinged.

"No mistake mister Malfoy, as I was just telling miss Granger here, I have selected both of you to be Head Boy and Girl during this year." McGonagall said sternly.

Hermione and Draco crossed gazes quickly.

"I think we'll manage, if you'll excuse me..." Hermione quickly stated before she darted next to him and exited the office.

This was an unexpected turn of events. Hermione sat in her very own designated reading chair in front of the roaring fire in the head suite considering the life choices that brought her to this situation.

"Granger"

The sound of her name snapped her from her trance, a haggard looking blond stood in front of their closed door. Was he taller than the last time they saw each other? She recalled that day at the ministry, just after the battle, when she testified in favour of him.

"He never hurt us! He even refused to identify us when we were brought in in the manor!" She had passionately stated when the court had suggested sending him to Azkaban.

Now he seemed nervous and suddenly turned back to the door and cast Muffliato. Hermione instinctively reached for her wand before wearily watching him put away his wand, walk in front of her, drop to his knees and profusely apologize to her for everything, clutching her robes while tears streaked down his sunken cheeks.

That was also an unexpected turn of events.

Hermione could not sleep a wink those first three nights. She read trying to avoid sleep.

It was quickly apparent Malfoy was now a social pariah, between classes he turned up dishevelled, traces of hexes on his robes.

Hermione told him to turn in his harassers, but he said it was nothing.

That fourth night Hermione screamed in her sleep.

A wand wielding wild-eyed Malfoy barged into her room, before finding her sobbing openly on her bed.

"What the fuck Granger?! You almost gave me a heart attack!" He said annoyed, while he sat gingerly on the edge of her bed and lightly stroke her back trying, not very effectively, to be comforting.

He yelped when Hermione suddenly pulled his pyjama front and pulled him close to bury her face in his chest and continue to ugly cry on him.

The next day he kept teasingly complaining to her that his neck was in "unbearable pain" after falling asleep sitting up with her on his chest.

When he came in late to their suite his nose was bleeding, and he headed straight to their shared bathroom trying to avoid her.

That night she screamed again, Malfoy came into her room again, he hugged her unprompted and whispered soothingly. "Do you want me to stay?"

She wordlessly opened her blanket and laid down, scooting to the side. He stepped in and cuddled her as her tears slowly subsided.

"You look like shit Granger, you want me to brew you some dreamless draught?" Malfoy asked while handing her a strong cup of tea next morning.

Hermione shook her head, lamely.

"You don't have to endure the nightmares." He said seriously

"And you don't have to endure the violence. " She quickly snapped back.

Malfoy's face hardened and turned from her gaze before adding quietly. "I think I do." He sipped his tea.

"Draco..." He snapped back his gaze to hers unaccustomed to her using his first name. "You are a good person, you were surrounded your entire life by horrible people, if I didn't think you deserved a second chance I wouldn't have testified for you in the trial." She said looking at him dead in the eye.

He seemed surprised. And Hermione suddenly came to a decision, she took a long sip of tea. He made it just like she liked it, strong, not too sweet.

"Draco, I need a favour from you..." She lowered her cup and sat up straight still looking intently at her roommate across the small table in their suite, he remained silent waiting.

"I believe you've gathered by now that I can't sleep alone..."

"Consider it done Granger..." He interrupted her avoiding her gaze.

"I'm not done yet..." She said and took another sip, he locked eyes with her again.

"I developed this 'problematic coping mechanism' after the war... I can only have truly restful sleep after I shag." She lowered her gaze to her cup and took a deep breath.

Malfoy's eyes became comically large. She looked him straight in the eye and continued speaking.

"We're both adults, and from what I've gathered you are currently unattached, I believe we could have a mutually beneficial agreement, you help me sleep, and I in turn, help your social status. What do you say?

Draco was at a loss for words, more accurately he gaped like a fish.

He stared at his wild haired, baggy-eyed roommate who was still by all intents and purposes more than shaggable.

"You're joking." He said after what seemed like an eternity, it wasn't really a question.

"I don't really do jokes." She deadpanned.

Malfoy stood up suddenly and pulled at his hair pacing. "Granger, you hate me! And now you're asking me to shag you daily into unconsciousness, so you can avoid having nightmares I actively helped create?! "

Hermione still seamed unperturbed. "I don't hate you... and maybe not daily, but a certain regularity would be ideal... also I have never blamed you for my nightmares."

Draco was unconsciously looking down her oversized t-shirt, the swell of her breast looked supple and inviting, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd been with a girl, early 6th year maybe? He looked up to see her smirking at his wondering eyes, he turned away from her trying to hide his creeping blush.

"You don't even like me." He said almost to himself.

She looked surprised. "I like you... I find you very aesthetically pleasing." She seemed to consider something before leaving her cup on the table and trying unsuccessfully to somewhat roundup and tame her unruly curls. "If it's about my appearance, I'm open to accommodate to your liking, you prefer straight and darker hair, don't you?"

"Your hair is fine." He said hoarsely, years ago he would have teased her on it, but for two nights in a row he had found himself nuzzled in its fragrant softness, and he couldn't imagine anything more pleasant.

"Then what's the problem?" She asked meekly.

"The problem? Merlin, Hermione how can you be so cavalier about this?!" He said slightly exasperated.

"I thought you would be more open-minded sexually... you know being Slytherin and all..." She said with a teasing note of judginess.

"I can be... I mean I am... I'm just caught very off guard by this." He said defensively.

"Well, it's good to know you like what you see. " She said smugly gesturing to the obvious tent in his pyjama pants.

He tried to ignore the furious blush that came to his face.

"Don't pressure me Granger, I haven't agreed to your cockamamie plan."

"Okay, take the time you need to mull it over." She giggled, the sound like tinkling bells made his groin twitch.

Why was he resisting again?

His eyes went back to her body, a particular scarred section on her forearm caught his eyes. He clutched his left forearm remembering the mark that would forever remind him of the piece of shite he really was.

"Go fuck yourself, Granger." He said dryly as he turned to leave.

By the time he left his room, Hermione was gone, and he headed to the shower to clear his mind.

Given his probation he wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade during the weekends like his peers. So, he spent his Saturday in the dungeons.

To Hermione's surprise once she arrived severely intoxicated later that evening, she found a flask of Dreamless Draught on her bedside table with a note. She had definitely relied on her Griffindor courage to proposition Malfoy, but the rejection had hurt her self-confidence nonetheless, she may have indulged in one too many Firewhisky shots. She sat on her bed and opened the simple note.

"Stop cheapening yourself with scum."

Draco almost hit the ceiling at the pounding at his door.

YOU SANCTIMONIOUS ARSEHOLE! IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK OF ME?! THAT I'M SOME SORT OF CHEAP TROLLOP?! AFTER I CONFIDED IN YOU THAT I'M LONELY AND SCARED!?

He was ripped from an uneasy sleep but nonetheless felt crossed. He swung the door open and yelled: "FUCK GRANGER! I WAS TRYING TO BE NICE!"

He was knocked back by the sight of a crying Hermione hands covering both her eyes.

"This was not how it was supposed to be..." She sobbed.

He exhaled exasperated, pulled her harshly into his room and sat her on the edge of his bed; she stumbled slightly before getting her bearings and looking up.

It suddenly occurred to him that she was staring at his chest. He followed her gaze to land on his Sectumsempra scars on the entirety of his pale torso and arms. White, almost iridescent stripes, not unlike those of a tiger, covered him save for that black inky patch of his left forearm where a skull and a snake made the most contrasting appearance.

He swore under his breath, he forgot he went to sleep shirtless thinking the draught would save him from any mid-night encounters. He turned his back to her to find a jumper before he heard a little gasp. He dropped his head defeatedly remembering the scars of the lashings his dear aunt left after the trio escaped his manor. He finally found the blasted jumper and quickly threw it on before turning around slowly and facing Hermione's horrified face.

"You weren't supposed to see that..." He said lamely looking to the floor.

The air suddenly left his lungs as he was enveloped in a rib crushing hug, a mane of soft fragrant chestnut hair blocked his vision as Hermione softly sobbed into the crook of his neck.

" You don't need to hide from me..." She whispered softly breaking the seriousness of the moment by hiccupping loudly.

"Ha, you're pissed, aren't you?" A mirthless laugh escaped his lips.

"Extremely, I should NOT drink the draught right now." She chuckled.

"NO, you most certainly should not, unless you want to wake up three days from now." Draco gently pushed her apart enough to see her face, tears were now barely flowing from her eyes, and a smile was on her face. He took his thumb and wiped a tears streak from her cheek. She leaned her face into his hand chasing the warmth, he smiled down at her sweetly and cupped her cheek.

She gave him an intense gaze and started chewing her lower lip. She wasn't sure if she should share with him what transpired earlier that evening. He gave her a quizzical look.

"Out with it Granger." He encouraged feigning exasperation.

"I went drinking in Hogmeade with the other 8th years...after one too many Firewhisky shots Dean Thomas asked me if I wanted to sleep with him..."

Draco felt a pang of something hit deep within himself. "Why didn't you?" His voice came out hoarser than usual.

Hermione's eyes widened for a beat, she looked down intently as if the neck of his jumper somehow held the answer. "Because... I wasn't as comfortable...with him knowing how profoundly fucked up I really am."

Draco exhaled a breath he didn't even know he was holding before he took a deep breath and pondered her answer. "Mmm I see...and with me there's no problem...given I'm exponentially more fucked up than you...right?"

Her eyes widened again and pulled him close to hide her face she spoke into his neck, her breath hot against his skin. "Please, just let me stay here tonight, I'll stop harassing you I swear, I'll never bring it up again, I'll start drinking the draught tomorrow once I'm sober. I just thought...maybe you felt as lonely and scared as I do..."

"I do, maybe even more so than you know... Stay Granger, sleep, I can give you that much."

3. May 1999 Head boy's quarters Hogwarts

Draco was tickled awake by a sea of fragrant chestnut curls. Hermione's hair had quickly become one of his favourite ways to wake up. It had been 9 months since he no longer had to seek out a purpose to open his eyes in the morning. He remembered that first day they came out together from their shared quarters, hand in hand and sat together in the Great Hall, a collective gasp could be heard throughout the school.

Harry and Ron met with her in Hogsmeade the very next Saturday to personally make sure she wasn't Imperioused. Draco wished he could have seen their faces when she broke the news to them, but his probation didn't allow him outside the school. Blaise did tell him Ron had turned a particular shade of puce and had almost gotten thrown out of the Three Broomsticks for the ruckus.

Soon after that there was no doubt in anyone's mind, they were disgustingly in love with each other, they seemed joined at the hip, they would read together, passionately discuss topics way out of the scope of their age range and even when they would only share chaste kisses around others, everyone would notice the desire behind their casual caresses, their longing stares and the occasional state of disarray they would arrive in between classes.

This had definitely been the best school year of his life, the bullying had completely stopped, Gryffindors started to actually like him, if only because he seemed to make their Golden Girl so happy. Hermione seemed like an entirely different person, she was witty, she laughed, goofed around, and to Draco's delight she was marvellously sarcastic. She was still the smartest witch in her year, but she would never be referred to as stuck up anymore. Blaise and Theo would joke around saying that stick had finally been properly fucked right out of her ass.

He tightened his grip around the witch's waist. Inhaling as deeply as he could.

"Five more minutes..." She whined softly; he held her tighter to him.

To Draco's surprise he felt his teeth wandlessly Scourgified before she turned and smiled at him kissing him deeply.

"Have I ever told you that the casualness of your use of wandless magic is terrifying?"

She pondered that for a minute. "When you spend months in a war, in hiding, having to lend out your wand half the time, you start figuring out what your limitations are without one." She said nonchalantly.

"No, you wallow in hopelessness and depression, at least that is what us mere mortals do, we don't translate a Uagadou's textbook from Swahili to figure out how to do wandless magic."

"I've seen you drawn curtains wandlessly." She said accusingly.

"Yes, and I considered myself impressive until you put me to shame with your wandless wordless displays." He said dramatically.

At that moment an owl flew in through their window, Draco sat up and it dropped an envelope on his lap.

"What's that?" Asked Hermione curious, it didn't seem like a letter from Narcissa.

Draco saw the sender and opened it quickly. His face lit up! "I got in! Hermione, I got into the experimental healer program at St. Mungo's."

"You want to be a healer? Why didn't you ever tell me? I thought we were going to work for the Ministry together." She was slightly disappointed.

He was still rereading the letter over and over again in disbelief. "I didn't think I'd get in the program, it's a mix of muggle science and magic, I'll even get to study for a while in Oxford University, they think it may help us better understand how to revert magical memory loss." He turned the letter again. "My muggle studies have always been lacking, but I've been cramming extra hard this year to pass this entrance exam, and I did!"

Hermione's jaw went slack. "You want to revert magical memory loss?" She had told him about her parents during their first week together, and he had been particularly quiet about the subject.

He was still rereading the letter, so he answered without much thinking. "How else am I going to get your father to walk you down the aisle when we marry? He was abruptly cut off by a blistering kiss.

She held his face tightly in her hands, her eyes shining with tears. "You wonderful, brilliant man! Of course I'll marry you!"

Now his jaw went slack. "What?! You're serious?! Oh, thank Merlin!" He kissed her passionately. "I just buggered the whole grand proposal I had planned for a few years from now, but who cares? You said YES!" He gave her a quick tight hug before turning and opening his bedside drawer. He extracted the ring box and opened it. "This ring is yours if you want it, it used to be my grandmother's. She was a horrible woman who would be turning in her grave if a Muggleborn ever so much as touched it, and don't worry it is not cursed, I checked, so I'd personally feel a malicious glee about you wearing it... But if you so prefer, we could get you another one."

He slipped the giant ring on her finger, it was so early it hadn't even occurred to Draco that they had actually never discussed marriage before, even though during the holidays he had taken Hermione to his country house (avoiding his Manor entirely for good measure, but still being under house arrest) to formally meet his mother. She had given him her blessing and his grandmother's ring that day.

Hermione looked at the huge extravagant diamond surrounded by emeralds in a band of white gold and more diamonds, placed on her left hand, she could picture generations of purebloods writhing in anger at her audacity as she proudly wore it and smiled. "I love it."

4. June 2000 Granger residence

Hermione was lying in the foetal position on her childhood bed crying, the bedroom of her childhood home was spotless, kept in a stasis charm, waiting for the day her parents got their memory back and returned. She had pictured them going right back to living like they used to, just like nothing happened. Now that dream seemed less and less likely since the man who was going to dedicate his life to cure them was currently being wed to Astoria Greengrass and had renounced his place in the healer program to follow in his father's legacy of taking care of the family's wealth and nothing more.

Hermione heard the distinctive pop coming from the entrance of her room. She didn't want to look up, there was only one person in the world who could find her here, and she didn't want to look at him in the eyes right now.

Ron sat gingerly on the corner of her bed with a large brown grocery bag balancing on his legs.

Before they broke up, they had occasionally ended up here when looking for a private place to shag, and afterwards she had forgotten to make the wards include him.

"Mionee…I… I didn't know what to do…." He started riffling through the bag he brought describing the contents. "So, I brought you some sweets, ice cream, Firewhisky and those movies you left at Harry's place, the 'Shawshank Redemption', and 'Four weddings…" Hermione wailed at the word weddings.

"Right! Bad idea that one…" He placed the bag on the floor in front of him quickly.

"Leave Ron!" Hermione said between sobs.

Ron looked at her slightly bummed. "I know you'd probably prefer for me to be Ginny or Harry, and I understand you want me to leave, but I just want you to know, I am still your friend… I…I am truly sorry this happened to you…I…" He sighed. "I love you Mionee, I've always just wanted for you to be happy..."

Ron started standing up but felt a tug at his sleeve as Hermione pulled herself up and hugged his arm pitifully. He pulled her towards him and wrapped her in a hug as she still sobbed on his chest violently.

Ron rubbed her back and tried to sooth her. "There there…It'll be fine luv…I promise…it'll all work out in the end…you'll see..."

5. June 2004 At the Burrow, Ron and Hermione's Wedding

A pale woman with dark ash blond hair styled in waves covering her left aquamarine eye arrived wearing a Ravenclaw blue flowy halter dress with the Weird Sisters band as her wedding present.

"Anna! You shouldn't have!" Hermione said surprised, hugging her guest lightly.

"Is this alright? I know you didn't have a band." Anna asked Hermione nervously.

"Just a stuffy quartet." Ron said stepping in and hugging her tightly.

"I mean you can use them as waiters if you prefer, they have experience in that too." Anna looked back as if consulting with the band, all the member's nodded, they were delighted to be at such an important wedding. "They owe me big. I brew all their Volubilis potions." Anna told Hermione quickly.

"This is perfect. Thank you! Harry and I were planning to hijack the music after getting some champagne in this one." Ron said a little too sincerely, side hugging his now wife, she responded giving him a playful slap on the chest.

"I love the dress." Anna said to Hermione trying to be witty, Hermione's dress looked very similar to the one Anna had worn to the Yule ball years before; a simple white a-line dress with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps.

"You caught me, I always liked the way it looked on you and since we looked almost the same back then, I assumed I'd look good in it too." Hermione said cheekily.

"No arguments there." Said Ron kissing his bride's hand making Hermione smile warmly.

"Congratulations to you both." Anna said moving away quickly, she ushered the band towards Harry who excitedly showed them the way backstage.

Anna was happy to see Ginny had ended up with Harry. She was proudly carrying a little baby boy, and George had ended up with his Hogwarts crush, Angelina. They had a toddler in their arms, the scene was giving Anna déjà vu, her eyes prickled and suddenly she felt faint, a pair of strong hands caught her by her shoulders before she fell.

"Are you ok?" An unfamiliar voice asked behind her.

"Yeah, thank you, these heels are deathtraps." She lied pulling out her wand from her dress and zapping her heels down to flats before turning around apologetically to see her saviour.

It was another Weasley, he was shorter and broader than Ron but had the same familiar good looks, shaggy bright-red hair, a kind handsome face, full of freckles, and a wealth of claw and burn scars on his exposed forearms from his rolled-up shirt sleeves.

"Merlin! Did you wrestle a Norwegian Ridgeback?!" Anna blurted out instantly in healer mode analysing his scars.

Charlie laughed "Actually yes!"

Anna's eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Hi, I'm Charlie, Ron's second oldest brother, I work with dragons in Romania." He said extending his hand towards Anna to shake.

"Oh! I'm Anna…Ron's…date to the Yule ball 10 years ago, I'm a healer at St. Mungo's." Anna turned red at the lameness of her introduction and covered her face with her other hand embarrassed while still shaking his hand.

"They really do invite everyone to this sort of thing, don't they?" Charlie said teasingly, making her blush more. "Can I have my hand back now?"

Anna hadn't even notice she hadn't let go, she dropped his hand and jumped back apologizing. "Sorry, sorry, I don't get out much."

"I suspected that."

"Could I get you a drink? As thanks for not letting me fall on my face in front of the whole wizarding world?" Anna asked embarrassed.

"Sure, would you like to join me at my table?" Charlie said blushing too.

"That'd be lovely."

6. December 1994 The Great Hall a week prior to the Yule ball

The trio sat in the great hall while doing their potions essays, the school was so overcrowded given all the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students, it was easier to have all the years together doing assignments in the great hall. Snape kept a close watch on them, Ron and Harry were specially getting on his nerves, they were babbling on about not having dates for the ball, and suddenly Hermione handed in her work and stormed out.

As she stormed by, she almost pushed a very absent-minded 7th year who had just stood up to head out of the room herself, Hermione didn't so much as look at her, so the girl looked back to see where this angry girl had come from to try and explain the source of her distress.

There, close to where the girl had sat, were the Weasley twins, she had worried that maybe one of them was the one from her vision, for she knew them all too well, but quickly threw out the idea because their hair wasn't exactly a match to what she had seen. Suddenly she saw him, another ginger sitting near the twins, another Weasley, she saw the vision once more: 'She was standing in the great hall with lovely decorations all over, wearing a white dress, her hair and makeup looked perfect. She was in front of a boy, but she couldn't see his face; he was tall, slim and had fiery red hair. They were saying something to each other and then Anna could see herself leaning towards him, it seemed like she'd kiss him, they would then hug and slow dance, he would whisper something to her ear, and she would smile broadly while a tear fell discreetly down her cheek...'

That's all she saw, she hated when her visions were soundless like this one, but she thought to herself that she had seldom looked so happy in her life...

She sat back down as it hit her, it was him, his name was Ron, she had heard of him, mostly from her classmates, saying he was Harry Potter's best friend and that he always got into trouble.

"Well, might as well see if I'm right." She said to no one in particular, and quickly headed his way, she pretended to tie her shoes while discreetly pulling out her wand and casting tickling curses that made the Slytherin table start laughing uncontrollably, Snape quickly headed over there leaving the Gryffindor table unsupervised, she swiftly sat down at the spot Hermione had left, and everyone stared.

"Hi Ron." She smiled kindly.

Ron took several seconds to get the point that she was speaking to him, she was a pretty girl from Ravenclaw not much taller than Hermione and about her same built, he thought he had seen her once or twice before but really couldn't place where, she had very straight long dark ash blonde hair parted so that it covered part of one of her aquamarine coloured eyes, her skin was almost lily white for the exception of her cheeks which were flushed in a pretty pink colour. He was trying and failing horribly to reply when she cut him off explaining.

"I'm sorry, that's so rude off me, my name is Anna Holmes, I know you don't know me, but I would like to have a chance to change that, I was wondering if you would like to go to the ball with me?"

Ron was still speechless; he had just told Harry that they would have to find partners by the end of the day and was now turning a shade of pink achievable only by him. His brothers interceded.

"Sure Anna, he'd love to." Said George.

"Lovely to see you as always." Winked Fred motioning to the Slytherin table who was now settling down with Snape looking particularly menacing.

"Great" She smiled back at Ron who was still speechless, "I'll see you around then." She got up in one motion as she saw Snape heading back, she turned around and winked at the twins as she whispered, "Thanks guys." And headed back to her table.

"What was that all about?!" Asked Harry, bewildered, who had been sitting with his mouth open the entire time.

"That!" stated the twins "Was Anna Holmes."

"Who the hell is Anna Holmes?" Asked a more confused Harry.

"It's not who the hell mate"

"It's what the hell"

Ron and Harry just looked more and more confused each second.

The twins just looked annoyed at their ignorance.

"She's a mystery, and we still haven't been able to figure her out yet"

"It's as if she has powers beyond our comprehension, she could get away with murder if she wanted and nobody would know who to blame."

"What?!" Whimpered a now somewhat scared Ron.

"Not like that you idiot! It's well…difficult to explain"

"Try." Said Harry annoyed.

"She knew we had the marauders map, and she was the one who told us how to use it."

"When we asked her how she knew about it, she told us she really couldn't say."

"We assumed she had it before we did and that Filch had taken it from her."

"But then after that we watched her for a while on the map and we discovered something even weirder, she would almost never be where she was supposed to, she could be wandering around in Filch's office, with Filch in there for all she cared and would not get caught"

"At first we thought she had an invisibility cloak but, then there were things that just didn't add up..."

"Like what?" asked Harry, intrigued.

"Well, she would just vanish from the map and appear on a different floor, like if she could apparate within the school"

"How?" asked Ron.

"Well, that little brother will be for you to find out" Fred said excitedly.

"It's amazing she asked you out, she famously doesn't date, Merlin knows we've tried to ask her out for years to get an opportunity like that to know her secrets." They both stood up and patted their little brother's back.

"Well," Ron smiled, "at least she's pretty"

7. May 1996 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Almost 2 years after the Yule Ball Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was closer, and closer to completion each day. Fred and George Weasley, recent school dropouts, were sparing no expense in making their shop colourful and zany, while carefully concocting each of their products using mostly themselves and some loyal volunteers as guinea pigs.

In their living quarters on the 4th floor number 93 Diagon Alley, George contemplated the skyline littered with paperwork below him, while Fred finished checking on some potions.

Fred waved his hand in front of George, snickering at the faraway look on his other half.

"Wha- oh!" He said sheepishly, moving paperwork onto the table so Fred could sit next to him.

"Knut for your thought Georgie." grinned Fred as he sat down.

"I was just thinking about our customer demographics. We really should cater more to the witches." Said George, looking away pensively.

"Ew, you want us to sell beauty spells?!" Fred grimaced.

"Yes…no…maybe…something like that, other than the love potions, I really have no clue." George gave a slight laugh.

"I'll say, if we did, we wouldn't be on our lonesome, right Georgie?" Fred half-joked bumping his brothers' shoulder playfully and standing up by the window.

George went wide eyed for a second before slamming his palm on the table and shouting. "That's it! We need a girl!"

Fred chuckled. "Preferably two, but if you're willing to share…" Fred wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"No, you idiot. We need to hire a consort of sorts." George said exasperated, his brain was thinking faster than his mouth was working and it was frustrating him.

"Even easier, I've seen a couple of lookers at night by Knockturn Alley." Fred said almost seriously.

"Would you get sex off your brain!" George said almost angrily. "As an adviser, a consultant, for the witch friendly products." George looked down and gave a slight smile biting his nail.

Fred looked at George curiously. "You already have someone in mind, don't you? He knew his brother enough to know he was having a good idea.

"How about Anna?" George looked up at his twin hopeful.

"Anna Holmes?" Fred started walking back to his chair shaking his head and sitting down almost dramatically. "Georgie, she wouldn't give us the time of day during school. What makes you think she'll help us now?"

George smiled and slapped his twin's chest with the back of his hand. "Lee said she is doing her healer training at St. Mungo's. Remember that strong batch of Puking Pastilles he took? Well, she brewed him a special antidote that wasn't taken orally, if you catch my drift, and told him something about being stuck in the potions room brewing antidotes for our products all day." George smiled.

"That's even worse, she'll hate seeing us." Fred said serious.

"Not if we offer her a part time R position in the store, that way she can have access to our formulas to work out the kinks, so she won't have so much work in the hospital." George said smugly leaning back in his chair interlocking his fingers on the back of his head.

"That's…actually a good plan." Fred said, leaning his elbows on his knees smiling. "I'd gladly test out the love potions with her."

"What, I'm not enough?" George teased.

"George, we said we'd never speak of that horrible day again." Fred said very seriously, staring daggers at his twin.

"What are YOU crying about? I was the one who drank it!" George said half teasing half upset.

Fred stood up again and looked almost angrily at his brother. "You tried to kiss me, George! I still have nightmares."

"And a good snogging with Anna would cure your trauma?" George snickered.

"Most definitely." Fred said in all seriousness looking out the window.

"Remember that night in the prefect's bathroom?" George said slyly.

Fred sighed dramatically. "It's one of my favourite school memories."

"Weren't we sneaking in, to put Frog Spawn Soap in the tub after we bathed?" Asked George trying to remember.

"Yeah, Diggory was supposed to get a bath full of frogs next morning, but we totally forgot after she crashed in our bath time." Fred said eyes closed, forehead on his fist.

"I didn't even notice the opened window when we were there." George smiled looking at the table.

Fred turned and leaned on the window frame staring at his twin mockingly. "You almost jumped out of the bath when the owl dived into the water."

George turned wide eyed to see Fred. "I saw a white projectile hit the bubbles at 3 in the morning in a place we weren't even supposed to be in. I wasn't going to stop and see what it was."

"She totally saw your prick." Fred said stifling a laugh and then got a far-off look. "I thought I was dreaming when her head poked out of the water…And if I remember correctly, you forgot how to breathe Georgie." Fred said with a snicker.

"No, I didn't!" George said defensively.

"I distinctly remember her, reminding you to breathe." Fred smiled.

"Well, you wouldn't shut up!" George exclaimed.

"I was just trying to process why the girl, who I've had a huge crush on since first year, was at 3 in the morning, in a bathroom none of us had any business being in, naked 8 feet away from my dick!" Fred almost shouted and walked back to the chair sitting down and rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.

"Why was she there?" George asked after a beat.

Fred threw his head back and covered his eyes with his forearm. "Who the fuck cares? She probably had a vision; she looked as surprised as we did."

"I'm pretty sure I heard Harry used the same bathroom for his Tri wizards' clue, next morning..."

"She did take the Frog Spawn Soap before she left."

"A curse on whoever put towels so damn close to the bathtub." Fred said standing up and walking to get a glass of water.

"How many times did you ask her out?" Asked George amused.

Fred took a big gulp of water before responding "Not as many as you!" He said slightly crossed.

"Best rejections." George said smiling.

"She only kissed me once." Fred said almost bitterly.

"I got three times". George said smugly. "She needed to really like the way you asked her out."

"She would never say yes, though." Fred said, staring out the window again.

"Remember when rumours started, she would kiss anyone who asked her out, and there was a line of cursed idiots outside Madam Pomphrey's? George said looking at Fred.

"We got some of the ideas for our products from that line-up." Fred said longingly.

"We never thanked her for that." George tried to remember. "I don't even think we thanked her for opening the Marauder's map either."

"I'm sorry, when a hot girl comes up to you at night in a deserted hallway and whispers in your ear 'I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good' I thought I was getting laid." Fred said defensively.

"We were in first year!" George laughed.

"I'm an optimist." Fred said dramatically.

"You're barmy." George was laughing so hard he was almost crying.

Fred took another sip of his water and almost mumbled. "I tried to kiss her then."

"No! What did she do?" George said, wiping tears.

"She put a finger to my lips, laughed and told me to repeat it to the Marauders." Fred said sullenly.

"That's why you kissed the Map when you got to the dorm!" George laughed so hard he almost fell back on his chair quickly making him stop. Fred was now a bright shade of pink with a scowl on his face.

Once George straightened up his chair and himself, he continued. "Remember how long you obsessed over watching her name on the map?"

"Obsessed is a strong word." Fred glared in response.

"Giving the map to Harry was necessary, mate." George responded knowingly.

"Did you know she was an Animagi? I didn't know! She moved around the map unnaturally." Fred responded pouting.

"So did Pettigrew but we never noticed him." George said matter-of-factly.

"Don't start with that again." Fred said glumly.

"You also thought about poly juicing into Ron to go to the Yule ball with her." George mumbled.

"That was only a passing comment…there was no way we could brew poly juice potion in a week." Fred said seriously, looking into his water.

"And if you did, you would have ruined her whole plan to get Ron and Hermione together." George said plainly.

"I don't think Ronnie even got a peck on the cheek from her." Fred said smugly.

"Well she told him more about herself in a week than we found out in six years." George said seriously.

"Details." Fred shrugged it off and headed to the closet getting his coat.

"Where are you going?" George asked.

"St. Mungo's. You're coming or what?" Fred said almost to the door.

8. December 1994 Hogwarts grounds, three days before the Yule Ball

Ron and Harry were hanging in one of the courtyards while complaining about the social behaviours of girls and watching a bunch of Beauxbatons pass by. Harry had finally asked Parvati to the ball the day before when they had returned to the common room.

"Cheer up boys we aren't that difficult to manage"

Ron and Harry searched for the source of the voice before looking up to find Anna sitting on top of the largest tree. She suddenly jumped off making them flinch, then floated to the ground with the same spell Cedric and his dad used to land after the portkey to the Quidditch cup.

"What?" She asked now standing in front of the pair staring with their mouths slightly parted.

"We really need to learn that one." Harry told Ron begrudgingly under his breath.

"Harry, I think I saw your owl head towards the owlery a second ago, maybe you'd like to go check."

For reasons unbeknownst to them she knew every owl in the school.

Harry remembered he was waiting for a message, so he quickly dashed away, leaving Ron behind with Anna.

Ron didn't dislike Anna, he even thought she was kind of pretty, in a ghostly way. She was way too pale and seemed like she was partially hiding behind her pin straight dark ash blonde hair that always covered her left side; but her blue-green eyes peeked mischievously through the strands, making him feel a bit intimidated.

"How about a walk?" Anna asked smiling.

Ron nodded gently with slight bewilderment in his eyes.

"Knut for your thought Ron" she smiled.

He blushed, not realizing he was staring.

"Why did you ask me to the ball, why not ask someone from your year?"

She stared at him for a while obviously thinking what to answer then looked ahead and sighed.

"Mmm, well mostly because I think you're cute." She blushed a bit while speaking. "And since I'm graduating this year, I thought it would be a good opportunity to know you better, I'd hate to think I missed out on a chance to meet someone special." Ron blushed harder. "...and why not ask someone from my year? Well mainly because they're all pompous asses" she grinned.

Ron smiled "Even Diggory?"

"Ha, don't even get me started with that one, it all goes downhill once they know they're good looking"

"Really?" Ron seemed surprised that a girl wouldn't drool over Diggory.

"If you don't believe me just look at your brothers, they think they're all that, DON'T YOU BOYS!" She yelled the last part and then smiled, staring at a bunch of trees across the way. Ron flinched as the twins came out of them with their hands over their ears, no doubt eavesdropping with some charm.

"Always a pleasure seeing you Anna." Yelled Fred.

"Carry on." Stated George and they both headed away quietly still rubbing their sore ears.

"Bloody Hell! How did you know they were there?"

She gave him a mischievous smile. "Believe me with those two you learn to keep your eyes peeled."

"You don't have to tell me." Smiled Ron.

"You have a really nice smile you know?" She said sweetly.

"Thanks, you too." He blushed.

They walked and talked amicably, Ron told her about all the things Harry, Hermione and he had faced during his first three years at school, she knew several details which he assumed got leaked at some point to the students, but were not widespread, so he felt strangely comfortable talking to her figuring she knew how to keep a secret. They sat at the edge of the lake. He hadn't even realized they had walked this far, he took a seat by her side, feeling somewhat like he was talking to the big sister he never had.

"So, tell me, why hadn't you asked anyone to the ball? Anna saw immediately that the question made him uncomfortable, he stayed in silence for a while before he started babbling to himself.

"Well... I tried... but she can be so difficult sometimes... I would've taken her if she wasn't so bloody proud!"

"Who?"

He jumped as if snapping out of a trance and blushed as he just now noticed he was talking out loud.

"Is it Granger?" his eyes bulged out slightly, "It is! No wonder she stormed out of the hall, don't tell me you were planning on asking her out 'till the last minute!" She said laughing.

"What? I was doing her a favour! And then she goes and makes up this lie about someone else asking her!"

"Why would you think that's a lie?" She asked calming down.

"She's a bloody know it all!"

"And you love that don't you?" she teased.

"What!" He blushed furiously. "I do not!"

"Really, so tell me why didn't you ask anyone else?"

"Well...I just... didn't get the chance to!"

"Or was it because you wanted to wait a while so you wouldn't seem too eager?"

"Bloody hell could you stop messing with my head already?!"

"Ok, ok sorry, I'll stop now" she smiled "...now I know why she likes fighting with you so much..." Ron threw her a stern look before she laughed again.

"You want me to find out if it's true that she has a date?... 'Cause I could find out for you..."

"Really?" he beamed at the thought.

"Sure, but it'll cost you" she smiled slyly.

"What?" he asked with a whimper.

"You have to dance with me at the ball all night"

"But...I can't dance!" his ears turning crimson.

"I'll teach you!" she smiled, "Come on, stand up."

"Right here?"

"Yeah!"

"But I should really get going, I have tons of homework!"

"Don't be such a pussy!"

"I'm not a pussy!"

"Then show me!"

"But there's no music!"

She pointed her wand up and said "Accio radio" a small box suddenly swooshed out of the astronomy tower and zoomed towards her rapidly. She caught it, placed it on a rock nearby and pointed her wand to it moving the dials until music came out of it, he looked at her both surprised and defeated and just put up his hand, she took it in hers and placed the other on her waist, at first he put up a fight but quickly gave in, he started actually having fun, she was a good dance teacher, unlike McGonagall, she would give him pointers and make up fun steps which they laughed together at. After a while she stopped and looked up at the sky.

"Ron, I think your homework's calling you"

He saw the sun had disappeared from the sky. "How late is it?"

"Pretty late, go on, I'll send an owl later with the answer to your question." Ron took a second to remember what she was talking about "... now run, she'll probably be waiting for you!" Anna said pushing him towards the castle.

He looked up to the Gryffindor tower and saw the lights in the common room still on. "Stop taking the mickey out of me Anna!" he looked back to find that Anna wasn't there anymore.

"I swear that girl is bloody weird." He smiled and headed back humming one of the radio's tunes all the way.

Ron found only Harry in the common room waiting for him to his dismay, once they talked about their day for a while he sullenly headed to his bed, where he saw a white barn owl waiting for him, perched sleepily by his trunk, it carried two notes, the first simply said: "Read the next one in private and take the owl with you", he didn't quite understand this but didn't want to think too much, so he took the bird and closed the curtains of his bed. He took the next note which just read: "Try not to scream". As he lowered the piece of parchment, he noticed the owl wasn't there anymore but instead, where it had once been now stood Anna with a finger upon her lips signalling Ron to keep quiet. He jumped gasping, Anna quickly covered his mouth, and whispered "Sorry to scare you, I'm an Animagus, swear you won't tell anyone". He nodded still wide eyed, so Anna let go.

"She does have a date." She whispered.

Ron remembered why he had waited for her letter in the first place, and he felt something inside him churn at the thought of someone else holding Hermione, dancing with her, kissing her goodnight.

"Ron, don't you wanna know who it is?" Anna asked.

His first impulse was to go find this guy and make him regret the day he was born, but then he thought how much she would hate him for that, and all because he hadn't had the bollocks to ask her to the ball in the first place.

"Ron? Are you ok?"

He snapped out of his trance, frowned and just laid down and covered himself up to his head with his blanket. "I don't wanna know anymore, she can go with whoever she bloody well chooses."

Anna made one swift movement and took Ron's wand and made a quick silencing and imperturbable charm on his curtains before yelling.

"You great prat!" she stood up on the bed and kicked him hard on the bum while he was still curled up under his covers. He jumped and glared up at her, she looked positively menacing which was really funny considering her straight dark ash blond hair was sticking up around her head in a halo, electrified because of the curtains and bed sheets, with only her right blue green eye visible and her Ebenezer Scrooge nightgown.

"What was that for?" He yelled at her. "I'll still go to the ball with you, you psycho!"

"You are daft!" She sat back down at the bed with a sigh. "I don't care if you go with me or not, but you clearly like Hermione, and you don't seem to do anything about it."

"I don't like her!" He yelled aggravated.

Anna just glared back. "She likes you too, if that's what you're wondering."

Ron gasped, his ears turning a bright shade of red. "Did she tell you?" He couldn't suppress the excitement in his voice.

Anna smiled. "No, but I can tell, and your reaction proved my point."

He scowled and once again covered himself up in the covers.

"Come on Ron!" She threw all caution to the wind and snatched his pillow and started attacking him with it.

"Quit it!" He sheltered himself under the covers.

"Ron come on! You can still win her back."

"Oh yeah, how?" he murmured under the covers.

"I have a plan! But I can't do it by myself".

9. May 1996 Third floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Fred and George entered the third floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

To any muggle this floor looked like any other hospital floor, except on this floor the first thing you heard was uncontrollable giggling, and instead of white coats, healers went about in lime green robes.

All the way to the back of the floor, there was a small sign that read 'potions room', it had an 'authorized personnel only' sign below. Fred and George looked around and walked in swiftly, they were seldomly stopped by rules after all.

The room's smells were dizzying, a perfect mix of pleasant and unpleasant from seemingly endless corridors of different sized cauldrons brewing. Most had self-stirring spoons, others had small canaries dropping in ingredients and banishing once completed the task. The whole place was strangely lit, one side, was bright and had windows that cast the sun in perfectly, while the other was almost pitch black. The sound of constant bubbling almost drowned the barely audible wireless playing a fast-paced song from the Weird Sisters in the back of the room.

In the centre of the room there was a huge table with what seemed like thousands of ingredients labelled in small glass dishes and in the middle of this table was a huge cage full of little canaries. A little canary would fly out intermittently from the opened cage, pick up an ingredient and drop it in a cauldron before banishing with a pop. They stared in awe taking mental notes for their own production line.

"I guess my Sneakoscope is broken." Said a teasing voice from the back, startling them a bit.

In the far side of the room there was a simple table, a young witch, around 19 years old sat oddly behind it, she had one foot on her chair, she was in what looked like black tights underneath her senior apprentice yellow with forest green trim robes.

She was reading through mountains of parchments. Her side-parted dark ash blond hair partially covered her blue-green eyes, she currently had a messy bun apparently held together by her ebony wand sticking up on top of her head.

"You're a sight for sore eyes Anna." Fred said smiling.

"Nice setup you got going here." George said admiring the canaries.

That made her look up and smile. "You like it?" Her figure suddenly banished into a white barn owl with her wand in its talons and flew across the room gracefully re-stretching back into a girl between them now with her pin straight hair down to the middle of her back, and wand in her hand.

"Still can't get used to that." Fred whispered almost to himself.

"I designed it myself, each morning I conjure a canary for each ingredient needed to be added in the day, I task it a time of flight and a cauldron, once they serve their purpose they vanish."

"Wicked." Fred and George said in unison.

Anna smiled, obviously proud of her work. "That way I can use the rest of my shift to do my trainee work and study."

A bell suddenly rang on top of some of the cauldrons.

"Oh! Ditannies are done." She waved her wand, and the ringing cauldrons were levitated and sent to another section of the room where their contents were poured into already labelled vials.

"Does that mean you're free once you get off your shift?" Fred beamed.

"How would you like another part time job in the same vein as this?" George asked enticingly.

"What? No." Truthfully, she was still weary around the twins, she had hidden from them her secrets for years, and some habits were hard to break, she started walking away towards her table once more.

The twins dashed in front of her to stop her.

"Come on Anna, you're obviously brilliant at this and we need help for our store." George pleaded.

"Pleeeease…" Fred said with puppy dog eyes.

"Guys I'm flattered, but I'm just too busy, you think this healer business is easy? See that row of cauldrons over there? I've been brewing antidotes for your messed-up products all week." She pointed at a huge row with all sorts of different coloured potions.

"Exactly, we need your help to test out our newest line of potions before selling them at our place." Fred explained.

"And we need your expertise, in case we mess up." George added quickly.

"I don't know…" Anna seemed doubtful.

"Think of it as pre-emptive healing, that way you won't have to treat any more patients coming in with side effects from our merchandise." George explained.

"Hence, you'll have less work here." Fred quickly added.

"We'll also pay you." George emphasized.

"Handsomely." Fred added.

Anna stood silently thinking, "Fine, I'll consider it. My shift ends in twenty. Go to the waiting room and we can head to your place afterwards."

After Anna's shift ended, they Apparated back at their place, Anna had left her robes back at St. Mungo's, she was now in her black tights with a simple long-sleeved dark green tunic that ended mid-thigh and had a modest neckline. She walked around the store trying to remember her vision of it complete, smiling when something already coincided with her memory. It still amazed and scared her that everything she saw always ended up happening no matter what.

"Nice place you got going here…Very...colourful." She smiled catching the section on muggle magic tricks. Recalling her friend Alex's dad showing her card tricks the summer she spent with them.

"Glad you like it." George smiled.

"We spared no expense." Fred added.

They headed up the stairs to the fourth floor where their flat was, and the potions were kept.

"So, this is where the real magic happens? I kind of imagined more socks laying around." Anna teased looking around the place. It was almost a storeroom, big open kitchen, one couch, one structure she assumed was a bathroom and 2 beds in the far side with nightstands, and closet racks on each side.

"We tidied up before you arrived." Fred bragged.

"My idea." George said, slightly annoyed.

She chuckled and walked toward the potion cauldrons quickly putting her hair up with her wand again.

"What's cooking guys?" Anna looked in the cauldron and her eyes went wide, if she weren't so pale, they could have seen the colour draining from her face. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yeah, we're trying to brew new kinds of Amortentia to sell at our place." Fred said nonchalantly.

"ARE YOU TWO INSANE!? You want to commercialize one of THE most powerful and may I add dangerous potions in the world, to horny teenagers?!" Anna looked genuinely terrified and slightly furious.

"To anyone who can pay really." Fred snickered.

"Oh yeah? What if a rich Slytherin scumbag buys a whole bunch and ends up knocking up your sister?" She said crossing her arms.

"That's why we're trying to alter it, to put in safeguards." George quickly interceded.

"Nothing above a good snogging." Fred added.

"How are they working out?" She asked sceptically.

"We don't know." Fred confessed.

"We haven't tried them out yet." George said, scratching his head.

"We wanted you to take over those potions actually." Fred explained.

"Perfect them, as you will." George offered.

"You can use us as your guinea pigs." Fred said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I mean we could use the potions on each other, but that wouldn't be an accurate representation of the safeguards." George quickly explained.

"And especially how long they could last." Fred added.

"Aww, you guys think I'm attractive, I'm flattered." Anna said, still looking around the room, spotting quite a few bottles of Firewhisky.

"You should be, we're basically letting you snog us free of charge." Fred said smugly.

"Ugh, seriously? That's my motivation?" Anna said with a grimace on her face.

"You can also boss us around and embarrass us while under the spell." George added.

"That, I can live with." She said smiling.

"Besides there's no better witch to reel us in in case we mess up and fly off the deep end." George knew stroking her ego was a good way to approach her.

"We also needed help developing more witch targeted stuff." Fred said quietly.

Anna's jaw dropped. "Terrible choice. What about my monk-like existence, makes you think I know what witches like?" She suddenly dropped her arms, and her eyes glazed over.

"Anna?" Fred stepped up and waved his hand in front of her eyes.

"You got a vision?" George asked cautiously.

"Wonderwitch..." Anna whispered. Her gaze normal again.

"What?" Fred asked and was quickly silenced by her left hand.

"Shut up, shut up, I'm trying to remember…" She quickly pulled her wand and a quick quotes quill with a notepad appeared in the air in front of her, she closed her eyebrows together in concentration and dictated.

"Beguiling Bubbles, Cupid Crystals, Heartbreak Teardrops, Kissing Concoction, Twilight Moonbeams, Calamity Lotion, Crush Blush, Love is Blind Eye Serum, Flirting Fancies, Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher, Everlasting Eyelashes, Patented Daydream Charms and Pigmy puffs." She finished and exhaled loudly, dropping her hand from Fred's mouth.

"What in the ever-loving fuck is a Pigmy Puff?" Asked a bewildered Fred.

"I believe they're pink and purple miniature Puffskeins." Anna said thoughtfully ripping the page from the notepad, keeping it in her left hand. She dissapparated the quill, the rest of the pad, and once again put her wand up in her hair rolling it up in a messy bun.

"Huh…" George said, seemingly already thinking of the possibilities.

Anna read the list again and smiled. "Pull out the Firewhisky boys you're looking at your new business partner."

10. 2018 The Burrow

It was Christmas time in the Burrow, Anna popped her head into Ron's old room and saw Hermione sitting at his old desk reading over a small stack of parchments and books.

"Hermione!" Anna said gleefully stepping inside the door, Hermione looked up smiled and stood up to walk towards Anna.

"So great to see you!" Anna said hugging her sister-in-law tightly.

"Anna, you as well." Hermione said curtly.

"I heard you are running for Minister of Magic! That's amazing!" Anna said excitedly.

"Ah! Saw it did you?" Hermione said teasingly, she never really believed Anna was a Seer.

"Nope, Molly told me, she tells anybody that will listen really." Anna said laughing.

Anna saw one of the books on Hermione's reading pile. "Oh, wow!" She said picking it up and started looking through the book.

"Family member?" Hermione asked kidding.

"Actually yes!" Anna said laughing.

Hermione's eyes widened. "How?"

"Arthur Conan Doyle was really into the occult, he found my great great great uncle Sherlock, and was obsessed with him, he was a Seer but was nothing like me, he could actually control his visions, last one in the family who could do that, that I know of, he actually convinced Doyle he only knew things because of logic."

"Is Hermione going to win?" Ron asked from behind her surprising Anna, making her drop the book.

"Ron!" She bearhugged her brother-in-law.

She playfully hit his arm "You know that's not how it works; you prat. I can't will it to happen, but I am sure she will, just like I was sure she wanted to go with you to the ball."

"Wait, you mean you never actually saw that happening?!" Ron asked surprised.

"No, I just saw us dancing that last dance, that's why I asked you to the ball in the first place." Anna explained casually, seeing Ron's face visibly sadden.

"So, you never actually 'saw' us together?" Hermione asked using finger quotes on the word saw, a little smugly.

"No… not in a vision, but you two obviously belong together." Anna said a little less convinced than usual given the strange vibe.

"Right." Ron said smiling pulling Hermione in for a side hug.

11. 1994 Hogwarts grounds, Yule ball

Hermione opened her eyes, blurry images started to become clearer each second, she was laying comfortably on soft warm grass, little lights twirled around her, she started incorporating herself, and saw she was surrounded by dozens of fireflies lighting the patch of forest beautifully, the lake dazzled at a short distance, she couldn't help but gasp, it really was a magical sight.

"Like the view?" She turned and found Ron sitting on the floor a short distance behind her.

"Ron! But how?" she looked around, "It's winter!"

"You'll have to thank Anna for that, some sort of greenhouse charm, gave it a nice camouflage too, looks all covered in snow from outside."

Hermione walked over to the edges, stretched out a hand and found it hit something like a glass wall.

"This is amazing...but THE BALL! How long was I out? Victor must be looking for me, oh God! Her eyes were big with shock, and she covered her mouth with her hand.

Ron stood up cupped her cheek in his hand and simply said "Relax everything's been taken care of." He smiled gently, and suddenly, without her expecting it, he hugged her tightly. Hermione gasped but then felt so captivated by his scent and warmth that she relaxed into his arms.

He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "Thanks for choosing me." She could feel intense heat emanating from his whole face and knew he was probably blushing more furiously than she was at that moment. He parted slightly from her, pulled out his wand and pointed to what Hermione thought was the strangest looking phonograph she had ever seen, it had something like a flesh colour cable sticking out that continued out of the greenhouse toward the snow-covered forest. He muttered some spell and the sound from the ball filled the room, around them the fireflies seemed to follow the music, and Hermione felt her hand being taken in his while his other hand took her waist.

"Care to dance?" he smiled.

"Love to." She answered.

They danced and danced, smiling, commenting on the night's events.

"So how did you get me out here without everyone noticing? Last thing I remember I was in the girl's bathroom"

"Well, it was quite a challenge, according to what Anna told me the bathroom was full of girls everywhere, so once you were out…" He then apologized for the crudeness of putting knock out powder in the envelope. "Once you were asleep, Anna had to make a toilet regurgitate to make the other girls run out, she put an out of order sign and cleaned up before I got there with the invisibility cloak, she put a spell on your dress so it would hold you up and move so all three of us sneaked away under the cloak toward this place"

"So, she knows about the cloak now?" Hermione pulled up an eyebrow.

"Oh Mionee, she knows about lots more things, she's a Seer, she was the one who told Fred and George how to use the Marauders Map." Anna had confessed this to him once she saw how surprised he was that she knew about Harry's cloak.

"A Seer, oh Ron don't tell me you believe in that sort of nonsense?" She looked sceptically at him.

"Well then, how did she know you would open the letter choosing me?" He smiled at her.

Hermione blushed "well…I don't know…she risked it…I mean…she couldn't know for certain…" she mumbled.

"She did." He smiled and continued dancing with her. Hermione continued pondering.

"And what did you do with Victor?" Slightly fearing he was knocked out cold somewhere in a broom closet.

Ron smiled "Don't worry about him, he must be perfectly happy, he's dancing with you after all"

"WHAT?" Hermione backed away, she thought for a moment that Ron had been Victor all along and the pit of her stomach sank, but then he knew too much about her, he couldn't be, that meant…

"She Polyjuice me?" Hermione asked uncertainty in her voice.

Ron offered his hand again to dance as he said. "Not exactly, remember they already take some human transfiguration in 7th year." Hermione took his hand again and danced.

"So, she transfigured into me? And my dress?"

"She glamoured it onto hers once you were here." They both smiled and danced some more.

"Ron, do you mind if I take off these shoes my feet are killing me." She looked pleadingly.

"Oh yes, sorry love, she bewitched them too, you see she's an inch taller than you, so she made them grow." He stood down and helped her take them off.

Hermione was in awe, "You called me love." Ron looked up somewhat horror-struck, it had just slipped out, he blushed furiously again, he looked down at her feet again and said, "I'm sorry."

Hermione crouched down to his eye level and placed a hand on his cheek, "Don't be, I liked it." She too was blushing. He placed his hand on hers and with his other hand held her chin gently, they looked into each other's eyes and both leaned in, they closed their eyes just as they felt the surge from their lips touching, they kissed.

It could have been hours, days even, for all they knew they were in bliss, they didn't even notice the band say the last songs were about to play. They did notice a coughing sound coming from what seemed to be the entrance to their magical greenhouse, they looked around and there standing in the door was Anna looking like herself again in her white dress, looking to the sky above trying to give them privacy as she coughed. They both stood up quickly blushing.

"Sorry to interrupt guys, really, but the dance is about to end, we have to go back." She looked almost sorry as she said this.

"You go on ahead." Ron told Hermione. "We don't want Victor to suspect now do we?" he said with a mischievous look on his face. Hermione threw a stern look at him and laughed, she put her shoes back on and started walking towards the door when Anna stopped her and said to her ear. "I'm really sorry, Victor tried to kiss you, but I couldn't bear it, he may be a little upset about it." Hermione looked up at her and smiled "Don't worry, I would have done the same thing." Anna cast a warming charm on Hermione while she was looking back at Ron, she then headed back to the great hall.

"Well let's be off then." said Anna waiving her wand and disappearing the whole green house, the fireflies and the phonograph. "Had a good time?" She looked at Ron, he hadn't move at all and was just staring at Hermione making her way back to the castle.

He just smiled and said, "The best." Anna smiled; she looked back at Hogwarts. "Oops, almost forgot, she waved her wand again and the flesh like string curled up in her hands like a ball of yarn, she handed it to Ron while walking back to the great hall with him, casting warming charms on them both. "Tell your brothers it works like a charm." Ron looked down at it." This is Fred and George's?"

"Yeah." beamed Anna.

"Didn't they ask you what you were going to use it for?" He asked slightly terrified.

"Not once I told them I was a Seer, they didn't believe me at first, but when I told them that in about two years, they would have the highest earning joke shop in Diagon Alley called I believe Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, they seemed so impressed and happy about it that they didn't ask questions." She smiled.

The great hall was still packed, Ron could see Harry still happily dancing with Parvati and made a mental note to reverse his dancing curse once the ball was over, he looked around some more, he saw his sister dancing with Neville, she looked somewhat sad about something, he assumed it was because she would have preferred to go with Harry, he knew she fancied him ever since she met him. Short distance from him was Hermione dancing with a slightly glum looking Krum, he smiled to himself thinking how much glummer he'd look if he knew she had been with him all night. Anna pulled him out of his trance. "Why does your sister look so sad?"

Ron looked back at her "I assume it's because she fancies Harry." Anna looked at him and a smile appeared on her face. "Wait here". She ran towards the stage and signalled the bass player from the weird sisters, he seemed to notice Anna and leaned down to hear her, he nodded, and she headed back towards Ron, who now saw how the bass player told the lead singer something.

"What did you tell him?" Ron seemed surprised as the beat of the song suddenly changed to a snappier beat.

"I called in a favour; the bass player is one of my brother's old roommates"

"You have brothers? Of course you have brothers." He looked down at her and smiled.

"Just follow me" she winked.

The song was upbeat and Anna had been pulling Ron towards different directions pushing people as she danced, during a particularly fast part, the singer instructed to change partners, to Ron's surprise Hermione came to his arms, she was standing right beside them, Anna went with Krum, Ginny ended up with Harry which apparently lighted up both their faces, Parvati went to Neville not very happy about it.

"How did…?" Hermione smiled at Ron as they danced together once more.

"I don't know." He answered honestly smiling too.

"Ginny, you look great." Harry beamed at her.

"Thanks Harry, you too." Ginny blushed just like only a Weasley could.

"Mmm you smell just like Ermyownninny." Exclaimed Krum to a somewhat making-her-best-effort not to laugh Anna, overhearing in the back how Ron and Hermione were stifling laughter.

The song ended and everyone returned to their partners, the band announced they were leaving, and they would play one last song for all the lovers out there. They might as well have said dementors were coming, the whole place cleared out for the exception of a few people.

"Well, guess we will be going then." Said Anna as she saw Hermione saying good night to Krum and leaving towards the tower.

"Wait! I owe you this song at least." Said Ron holding her back. "Please."

She looked back at him and smiled, taking his hand.

"So...what are you doing after you graduate?" Ron asked awkwardly.

"I think I'll become a healer; I really like caring for others." She said smiling sweetly, she knew he had difficulty making small talk.

"I think you'll be great at that." He smiled, they danced some more..."Anna, I really don't know how to thank you for helping me out."

She looked at him, in the time she had watched Hermione she had seen how dedicated, smart and thoughtful she was. "Just promise me to look after that girl, she really is special."

"I promise." He smiled blushing..."Anna, I hope you find someone who knows how special you are."

"I already did, didn't I?" She smiled, she leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose.

He hugged her and whispered at her ear. "I wish you the best."

She smiled and a tear fell discreetly down her cheek, he wasn't for her, they were never for her, but she could at least keep them alive.

12. 1998 Granger residence summer break

After the war the trio were staying in the Burrow when they received their formal invitations to join the Auror training program. After Ron and Harry celebrated profusely, they were shocked to see a very sombre looking Hermione tear her invitation into shreds. Ron took her by the arm and Apparated the both of them to the old Granger house, place they would go to sometimes when they needed privacy.

"Hermione what the hell is your problem?"

"Ron! I can't do this anymore!"

"Hermione, we need you! It's always been the three of us."

"You think I enjoy putting my life on the line?! We haven't had a choice, until now!"

"But this is what we are meant to do! This is what we are great at!"

"Not me, this isn't me, I hate it! I only did it to protect the both of you!"

"What would you have us do? Go back to school? Take stupid exams like we didn't just save the whole bloody world?"

"Yes! Try to leave all that behind us, try to be kids again, try to be NORMAL!"

"NO! THIS IS THE GREATEST THING WE WILL EVER DO! WE NEED TO USE IT NOW TO GET AHEAD, NOT BURY IT!

"I REFUSE TO BELIEVE FIGHTING THAT SAD EXCUSE OF A WIZARD IS THE GREATEST THING I'LL EVER DO!"

Hermione went at sat on the couch thinking. Ron followed her and sat across from her.

"Ron…I need to do so much more for this world…Voldemort came to power because everything is so broken…I need to make it so no more power-hungry arseholes can ever rise up that way again!"

"Exactly! And what better way to do that than hunting down each and every last one of his remaining minions?"

"By changing the system Ron…In the ministry…In the world…Not by force…By knowledge."

"You're mental! That would never work! People are set on their ways."

"I can see that…guess I'll have my work cut out for me…I'm not going with you Ron, I'll be going back with Ginny to Hogwarts. I wish you and Harry the best of luck."

"Wait what?"

"I can't be in a relationship with you if I have to cry myself to sleep each night fearing for your safety."

"Hermione…"

"Think about it…you never write…I would be worried sick all the time, and I wouldn't be able to concentrate in school, better a clean break."

"No! We love each other!"

"Yes! But curiously that isn't enough to change our minds, is it?"

Ron slowly shook his head as tears poured from his face.

13. 1998 Head boy and girl shared quarters Hogwarts "8th year"

Draco stood underneath the cold-water stream, breathing heavy with his hands firmly on the tiles in front of him.

The image of Hermione shattering while rubbing against him mid-snog was branded in his brain.

The curls falling from throwing back her head with such force, the pretty blush on the apples of her cheeks, her eyes closed in ecstasy, that moan that made him shatter right after her.

That wasn't the plan, he meant to stop, he mentally chastised himself for the indulgence.

He had meant to endure this year like a penance, the bullying, no friends, no partying, and definitely no sex.

Especially no sex with the school's golden girl, the bloody war hero for fuck sakes.

The searing kisses she gave him while grinding herself on him, so full of passion and lust, were short-circuiting his brain.

Bloody hell! He had no right to be this happy after everything that he did!

The soft knock at the door didn't pull him out of his spiralling thoughts.

"Draco, is everything okay?" Hermione's soft voice was so far away.

He didn't answer and she started getting worried. "May I please come in?" She said knocking softly again.

No answer.

"Alohomora" She stepped in cautiously wand drawn, her hair now free from its containment, she was still in the inciting tank top and now ruined yoga pants.

"Draco? Please say something." She walked to the shower. She pulled back the curtain and found him fully clothed trembling and sobbing underneath the freezing water, one hand covering his eyes.

She stepped in without thinking, flinched and flicked her wand to turn the hot water on.

"Why on earth are you in freezing water?" She hugged him close and rubbed his back while the water heated up.

He took a moment to process she was now here with him, and slowly began to feel warmth coming back to his body, he leaned his forehead on her shoulder and whispered. "I was supposed to be in Azkaban... Suffering...like my father. Not getting off with the witch I secretly lusted over ever since third year."

Her eyes were wide, she understood that guilt, it was survivor's guilt.

"Hey, look at me, it's okay, it's okay, I know how you feel... but the reality is we were child soldiers... You weren't in the final battle Draco, you left, your hands are still clean, I can't even say that for myself, during the heat of the battle I can't help but wonder if I inadvertently took any lives. It haunts my dreams every night." She said cupping his face forcing him to look at her. "But that doesn't mean we don't deserve a second chance at a regular teenage life."

He took her hands in his and pulled them off gently. "Hermione, I just can't drag you down with me, I'm a traitor and a coward. You're a war hero."

She balled her fists in rage, sparks flew menacingly from the tip of her wand. "FUCK BEING A WAR HERO! FUCK BEING A BLOODY SYMBOL! IT'S ALL HORSE SHIT!" Tears streamed down her face.

She slowly leaned on the cold tiles behind her defeatedly. "I just...I just... want someone to accept me when I'm being weak, and selfish and making stupid decisions."

Draco was awed, it had never occurred to him the pressure she must have endured, he knew Potter and Weasley were mediocre at best, she had to be their strength, their heart, and their brain for YEARS.

"I just want someone that wants me because they think I'm pretty, like a regular girl." She said with a mirthless laugh.

Not even that was given to her, she was beautiful, and now every guy that approached her may just be wanting to be with her because of her fame.

"I want someone that likes it when I'm driven, ambitious and overbearing, without getting tired of me."

He would never in a million years get tired of her. He suddenly found himself holding her tenderly by her waist, engrossed in every syllable she uttered.

"I know you weren't showed enough kindness, or tenderness, or love, and I have so much to give." Her hand was now in his hair raking her nails delicately in his scalp.

"Please let me." She begged and kissed him.

He was only too eager to reciprocate, he was already hers.

Completely and utterly hers.

14. 1998-2002 Several of Saint Mungo's hospital rooms

Fall 1998

"Hi…Ron…" A disembodied voiced seem to call his name from far away, Ron came to, in a St. Mungo's hospital room, he wore a hospital gown, and his left leg was exposed, a pink 12 inch freshly healed scar was starting to vanish in his inner thigh, Anna was next to him checking his chart donning lime green robes.

"Anna?" Ron asked trying to sit up, she placed a hand on his chest to stop him.

"Shhh don't move around too much, you lost a lot of blood. Aren't you in basic training? How did you go about losing 2 pints like that?"

"…don't ask…" Ron said embarrassed, if he had any blood left his ears would have turned red. The truth was he was stupid and reckless; ever since Hermione told him she was now dating Draco he couldn't think straight.

"Drink this." Anna handed him a black coloured potion.

He took a sip and grimaced. "Is it supposed to taste like metal?"

"Yes." Anna said rolling her eyes.

"Yuck."

"Get used to that, you are going to have to drink those every 4 hours for a couple of days." She proceeded to cast diagnostic spells on him seemingly pleased with what she was finding.

"Great…" Ron said sarcastically.

"Harry is in the waiting room, but I didn't see Mionee, do you need me to owl her?" She asked concerned.

Ron hadn't told anybody about the breakup, or that Hermione was now dating Draco, he assumed Skeeter was still deathly afraid of Hermione since she didn't publish any of it. "NO! She's at Hogwarts! I promised not to worry her…distract her… so unless I'm on my death bed, please don't contact her."

"Okay…" Anna said confused, but accepted it, she knew Hermione was really into her schoolwork so maybe that had been their agreement.

Winter 1998

"Back again so soon?" Anna said after sprinting into the room with a vial in her hand.

Ron was restrained to the hospital bed writhing in agony.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" Ron said recalling the wizard who cursed him.

"Ron, you need to drink this..." Anna said trying not to show how worried she was.

"GIVE IT!" Ron screamed his veins almost popping out of his neck in strain.

She grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look at her. "LISTEN TO ME! IT'S BITTER AS FUCK! DO NOT SPIT IT OUT! OR I WILL CURSE YOU WORSE THAN THIS!" It had been a very difficult brew to make, she had used up all her emergency stash and did not have enough to make another one.

He nodded once and drank the vial she placed at his lips. "BLOODY HEL! THAT'S AWFUL!"

"Told you…" She said letting out a breath she didn't even know she was holding as he saw his body relax and the veins in his face go back to normal.

He sighed in relief as the pain was gone.

"Better?" She asked sweetly stroking his sweaty hair.

"Yeah…thanks..." Ron said as she waved her wand to release his restrains.

Fall 1999

"ANNA?! WHERE'S ANNA?!" Ron screamed feeling a deep sense of dread and despair.

"I'm here." Anna said popping her head up from the floor, she had a small cauldron now self-stirring on the floor by the foot of his bed, she went to stand by his side holding his hands as he was reaching out towards her.

"Am I dying?!" He asked full of dread.

"No." she said smiling.

"I feel like I'm dying…" Ron said scared, he let go of her left hand and clutched at his chest.

"You are poisoned and delirious, but the antidote is almost done." She told him stroking his hair with her left hand still holding his hand with the other.

"Hermione was right! I'm shit at this!" He said looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't know… it's been months since I've seen you, I assume you've gotten better at it." She said still stroking his hair trying to soothe him.

"I should've gone with her back to Hogwarts."

"Yeah, probably."

"I can't back out now, Harry needs me."

"Debatable…"

"Are you seeing anyone?"

"What?! Are you gonna try to set me up?"

"Why can't I ever find you here when I'm not dying?"

"Because I don't want to be found..."

"Then how come you are always here when I'm dying?"

"Because in your file I put myself down as your personal healer…and because I live here..."

"How come you are never around to see me off?"

"By then you don't need me anymore." She said still stroking his hair.

"Do you like me?"

She smiled sweetly. "Yes Ron, I like you. I wouldn't be personally treating you if I didn't.".

"Would you go out with me?"

She laughed. "Boy that poison is messing with your head…What the hell… you are never gonna remember this anyway…Yes Ron in a hypothetical world were you and Hermione aren't meant to end up happily ever after, I would gladly go out with you."

"Go out with me." He said very seriously.

She looked at him sweetly still stroking his hair, something seemed to flicker through her mind that made her smile no longer reach her eyes, she leaned down and kissed his forehead. "Sorry, that would breech patient healer protocol." She heard a bell from her cauldron. "Oh, look at that! Your antidote is ready." She let go of his hand and plucked her wand out of her hair flourishing it to make the cauldron's content transfer to a vial and fly it to her hand. "Come on, big sip, this will make everything better."

Fall 2000

Ron opened his eyes in another St. Mungo's hospital room and saw a very sweaty Anna, with her hair in disarray and her chest was heaving like she just ran a marathon.

"Welcome back to the world of the living!" She said beaming.

"Ugh! Not you again!" Ron said covering his eyes with his arm.

"Fuck me! What did I do wrong?!"

"Sorry, sorry, that came out wrong…" Ron said trying to backpedal.

"I most certainly hope it did! I just spend the better part of an hour saving your bloody life, again! You where technically dead when you got here!" Anna said frankly offended.

"It's just…every time I see you…It means…I fucked up again..." Ron said in a very self-deprecating tone still covering his eyes.

Anna couldn't stay mad at him, she sighed and sat at the foot of his bed. "You are kind of death prone; I'll give you that…"

Spring 2002

"Disembowelment Ron, really!?" Anna said walking into the hospital room where Ron donned a hospital gown with the slit in the front, and an ectoplasmic looking bubble containing all his guts hovered on top of his open stomach lazily.

"Hey Anna." Ron said beaming.

"At least it's been a while, you broke the year mark." Anna said looking at his chart.

"Yeah, I am getting better at it." Ron said looking proud of himself.

"Should I be glad to see Mionee is in the waiting room this time?" Anna said genuinely curious.

"Yeah, she finally came around to what I do." Ron said happily.

"You sure about that? Her face said otherwise."

"Can you blame her?" Ron asked pointing at the bubble.

"Not really, no, but you do look happier than I've ever seen you when you are in here, even with your guts out. I assume it's because of her." Anna said smiling.

"Yeah." Ron said wistfully.

"Don't worry, I'll tell her it wasn't so bad; I'll even take extra care, so you won't have a scar."

"Thanks Anna." Ron said beaming again.

"No problem."

15. 1996 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Fred, George and Anna sat on the floor of the twins' flat, two empty bottles of Firewhisky laid sideways, Anna was more sloshed than she ever remembered being, especially since she did not need to worry about accidentally revealing she was a Seer or an Animagus with the present company.

"No way! You became an Animagus at TWELVE?!" George was wide eyed.

"Sure did, end of my first year." She took another sip. "Not by choice, my brothers forced me to do it, they stuck the mandrake leave to my mouth for a whole month and all, they meant well, they were concerned for my safety because of the whole Seer thing."

"Why?" Fred asked dumbfounded.

Anna looked a little sullen as she answered "Because historically being a Seer is more a curse than a gift. They were the ones that told me not to tell anyone about either thing."

"Did we get to meet them?" George asked.

"I don't think so, I think they were out by the time you guys got in." She took a sip before she mumbled. "…and they weren't Gryffindors."

"What house were they in?" Fred asked, curious.

"Francis was a Slytherin and August was a Hufflepuff." She said with a little mortification in her voice.

"Damn, I don't know which one is more embarrassing." Fred snickered.

The three of them laughed.

"It gets better, father was also Slytherin and mum a Hufflepuff." Anna said between giggles.

"Yikes!" Fred laughed.

"Maybe you were adopted." George said casually.

"I wish…Alas I'm the spitting image of my mum with my father's hair and eye colour. But neither's personality." Anna said dramatically.

"Any of them a Seer?" George asked, curious.

"Seems to happen mostly to women on my father's side, most ended up badly. So, I never told them." She said sullenly, taking another sip.

"Your folks don't know you're a Seer?!" Fred asked, shocked.

"No, only my brothers. Only seven people in the world know, including you guys, and you swore not to tell anyone else." She gave them a stern look as she said it.

"We haven't." George quickly stated.

"Good." She said, taking another sip.

"But not even your parents?" Fred insisted.

"Mum passed away when I was very young and dad…" She took a sip. "…Dad's a Death eater; he tried to recruit my brother. Francis found out You-Know-Who likes using Seers, even torturing them to get them to have visions, even though it doesn't work like that. He never got the mark, that's why he and Auggie were so keen on keeping me safe. Francis even pulled Auggie out of school the day of his 17th birthday and they fled to America. He thought Auggie was too much of a pushover to resist dad once he graduated."

"Why didn't he take you with them?" George asked.

"I still had the trace on me. Dad would've tracked us down." Anna said morosely.

The two twins sipped their glass looking somewhat concerned.

"Don't worry about me boys, most of the times my visions keep me out of trouble, and I can always fly away if the going gets tough…Plus, I got the heck out of my father's house the moment I turned of age." She said with a proud smile.

"Have you ever thought of joining us in the Order of the Phoenix?" Asked Fred hopeful.

"We could really use all your skills there." George added.

Anna's face fell again. "I can't."

"Sure you can, we can vouch for you." Fred said optimistically.

"I literally can't, my father forced my brothers and me into Unbreakable Vows when we were children, we can never attack people with dark marks directly." Anna said sullenly.

"No way!" The twins said in unison.

"I'm useless in battle. Right now, being a healer is the best I can do to help, but I can promise you I will always do what I can to help the cause." She took another sip. "Guess not all families can be Gryffindor legacies like you guys huh?" She said clearly trying to change the subject and lighten the mood.

The twins were experts at deflecting with humour and knew exactly how to do it.

"We think it's rigged." Said Fred nonchalantly.

"What is?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"The whole house selection thing." George explained.

"Why?" Ana asked, suspecting a punchline.

"Ain't no way Percy was a Gryffindor." Fred said, smirking.

"That's right! Percy is your brother! I always forget he's a Weasley."

"So does he." George deadpanned.

"The git." Fred added.

The three of them laughed again. Anna felt grateful they got the drift to change the conversation and relaxed once more.

"He's not so bad…You know, I loved messing with him when I snuck into your dorms after hours. I think I made him cry once." Anna said reminiscing.

"And what, do tell, where you sneaking in after hours to the Gryffindor boys' dormitory for?" Asked George cheekily.

"Please, tell us you weren't shagging Ronald!" Fred said horrified.

"What?! Of course not! Besides, Percy had already left, by the time I met Ron." She said teasingly to Fred's horror.

"I'm kidding! I was shagging the Mahoutokoro exchange student 3 years ago." She said with a blush and sipped her glass.

Fred spitted out his drink. "Sato!? You shagged Sato?!" He almost screamed.

"The chaser for the Japanese National Quidditch team?" George asked, baffled.

"He wasn't on the team yet." Anna said looking down at her drink.

"The blue haired guy they put in Gryffindor that year?" Fred asked just seemingly making sure he had the right guy.

"He was right next to our room!" George suddenly realized.

"You were shagging next to us, and we didn't notice you?" Fred asked, appalled.

"Why would you notice a barn owl?" Anna asked rhetorically.

"What on earth did you see in him? George asked, genuinely baffled.

"He wasn't even famous yet." Fred spat out.

"He was very discreet." Anna said cheekily.

"That's because he didn't speak a lick of English!" Fred said angrily.

"Oh, believe me, by the end of the year he was fluent." Anna said smugly.

"What? You planning to finish healer training and go to Japan to find him?" Fred asked again bitterly.

"No, we're just friends." Anna said unconvincingly.

"That shag." George murmured, sipping into his drink.

"He was in a new school, a new country, he didn't know the language well, we became great friends, and eventually a little more. But we both knew it was just while he was here, when the year was over, we said our goodbyes, we just wrote to each other once afterwards, nothing else. His parents are old school, they chose a wife for him, he's already married." Anna said looking out the darkened skyline lost in thought.

Fred downed his entire glass in a huge gulp bitterly before abruptly waving his wand and summoning nonverbally two vials of the experimental Amortentia, one flying to his hand while the other flying to his twins'. George's eyes went wide, instantly understanding his brother's state of mind and fearing his imminent embarrassment.

"Well, I'm itching to test this out...Bottoms up." Fred loudly announced and swigged down the entirety of the vial. George reacted a fraction of a second later downing his own vial in camaraderie.

Anna looked back at the boy's taking a split second to understand what was going on.

"No wait! I still don't have the antidote for that one." Anna uselessly said watching their Adams' apples bob down with the contents of the vial.

"Oh boy." She swallowed heavily; she was way too drunk for this.

16. 2004 Third floor of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

Anna was tweaking a formula in the back of her potions room in Saint Mungo's when she heard a knock on her now permanently locked door.

That was strange, the wards should only let medical staff through, and they knew to call out their business while knocking.

It wasn't that she was antisocial per se but once she gained her Adept Healer rank with a specialty in potions and spell damage, she retreated into the potions room saying she just wanted to be Head Potioneer and nothing else. The truth was she couldn't stand seeing patients anymore, after all the bodies came following the final battle her brain snapped, and the crying wouldn't stop. She just wanted to be alone where she could cry whenever she needed, and nobody would question it.

The hospital had always known of her 'complicated family situation' and would always deny her being or working there when asked, they had even allowed her to live on premises right after Hogwarts as long as she kept up her potioneer work, they even eventually allowed the wards and her own floo in the potion's room so she could arrive and leave through it.

"Anna?" A familiar voice asked through the door.

That perked her up, she transformed and soared to the door transforming once more before opening it excitedly donning her lime robes.

"RON!" She effusively hugged the Auror outfitted Ron smiling outside her door. "How did you find me?!"

"I'm an Auror, I know how to locate wards, I knew you didn't want to be found, but I also knew you had to be here somewhere, so I've been looking."

Anna blushed embarrassed. "I can't believe you remember that, what was that 4 years ago?"

"Just about."

"Sorry, I…I don't treat patients directly anymore, I just make their potions so I'm always here, I just came out when I saw your name in the orders."

"That's fine, I missed you, what's it been 2 years since my last near-death experience?"

"The disembowelment yep, wow, you are much taller now."

"That's because you haven't seen me standing since I was 14." He smiled.

"Prat, please come in." She gestured inside.

"I actually can't, I'm on an assignment, I just wanted to say hi and personally invite you to my wedding." He said beaming handing her an envelope.

"You and Mionee?" she asked knowing full well the answer.

"Yep" he said full of pride.

"Took you long enough!" she said teasingly opening the envelope.

"It took some convincing…" Ron said a little to honestly.

Anna didn't notice and also responded way to honestly looking down at the names on the invitation "…now I don't believe that for a second…" she said sweetly making him blush.

"It's great to see you Anna, will you join us?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." She said hugging him goodbye again.

17. June 2004 The burrow Ron and Hermione's Wedding Day

Anna and Charlie finished and entire bottle of Firewhisky by themselves just talking.

"So, you don't have any healers there?" Anna asked flabbergasted.

"Nope, I mean we can't really offer them anything really, we mostly stay outdoors, in the field, and we really don't earn much, most of our studies are paid by benefactors and that usually just covers basic supplies, we really do it for the love of dragons."

"Is that why you're single? Humans don't really do it for you?" She said with innuendo, she was officially tipsy.

Charlie laughed "It's more like slim pickings; I can appreciate a witch's company just fine... What's your excuse?" Charlie said leaning in a bit he was also tipsy.

Anna exhaled dramatically. "I don't have a life, I just work in my lab from sunrise to sundown, if I don't interact with anybody, I consider it a good day." She took another sip. "I even live there, I've never had a flat."

"Guess we both have that in common, we live to work." he said taking a sip from his glass.

"But can you dance?" She asked pulling him up boldly towards the dance floor where the Weird Sisters were playing a lively tune.

They danced badly for what seemed like hours laughing their heads off.

Once a slow song started, Charlie offered her his hand, she smiled and took it, he pulled her in gently by her waist, she wrapped her left arm over his shoulder and softly leaned her head on his.

"I'm really glad you ditched the heels." He whispered into her ear giving her goosebumps.

She turned her head to see they were practically nose to nose; she glanced at his lips. "Me too" and leaned in to kiss him softly to which Charlie enthusiastically followed squeezing her closer to him.

Mrs. Weasley started excitedly elbowing her husband to look over toward them.

Charlie opened his eyes to find his parents, Bill, George and Percy, wolf whistling and cheering him on from the sidelines.

He turned a shade of red only achievable by a Weasley.

Anna turned around and saw the culprits of her dance partners embarrassment feign innocence. "Can we maybe go somewhere more private?" She asked a still flustered Charlie.

"We can go to my childhood bedroom?" Charlie said trying and failing miserably to stifle a laugh at the preposterousness of the suggestion.

Anna laughed trying as well to keep a straight face. "Depends…are there roommates involved?"

Charlie beamed "Nope, as the only remaining unmarried Weasley in the household I have an entire room to myself."

Anna blushed a bit, smiled, took his arm in hers and asked him to show her the way.

Ron was talking to Harry when he saw Anna's flowy blue dress out of the corner of his eye, he turned and saw her heading out of the wedding tent towards the house on Charlie's arm.

"Champagne sir?" a passing waiter asked.

"No thank you, he's had enough" Harry tried to say but Ron had already picked up the flute and downed it in one go.

"I'm celebrating, aren't I?" Ron said slightly slurring his words, grabbing another flute and heading towards the dance floor.

18. April 2005 Romania

Charlie, Anna, Ron, Molly and Arthur sat in the waiting room in a Romanian courthouse.

Anna had her white Yule Ball dress on again, her hair was parted to the side as always, but curled in waves and she had a bouquet of wildflowers. She was curvy now, her arms looked toned and was no longer pale but slightly tanned, she looked much healthier and happier than Ron had ever seen her.

"You guys really picked the worst time to get married, everyone is either pregnant or just had their baby." Ron said somewhat annoyed of waiting, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Why are you here then?" Charlie said teasingly.

"Love you too, mate." Ron said sarcastically.

"Don't get offended, but he's right Ron, isn't Mionee about to burst?" Anna asked worriedly.

Ron laid back on his chair and exhaled. "For your information Mionee is just fine at Grimmauld place with Ginny and Harry, I had an assignment in Transylvania. The situation was handled, so I'm just taking a detour here before I get back. I have a portkey and an enchanted galleon with me in case labour starts." He said tapping on his shirt's breast pocket.

Anna took Ron's left hand and gave it a squeeze, making Ron glance up to her. "Ron, I really appreciate you being here. Thank you."

"No problem. Wouldn't miss it for the world." He said patting the top of her hand affectionally.

"Ms. Anna Holmes and Mr. Charles Weasley." A booming voice called out to them.

"Showtime kids!" Arthur said enthusiastically standing up and ushering all of them forward.

They went to a simple tavern to celebrate, Arthur and Molly danced to a lively spinning jig with the locals, finally celebrating their last son getting married.

Anna, Charlie and Ron were drinking a pint each laughing about the strange sequence of events that brought them there today.

Arthur came in looking a little green. "I'm calling it in for the day, Charlie, dance with your mother, she's still full of energy." He said pulling Charlie up and almost tossing him to an open armed Molly on the dance floor.

"Arthur, are you feeling okay?" Anna asked worried. "You want some Pepper up potion?" She pulled up her dress revealing a modified thigh wand-strap filled with tubes full of different potions on a slightly tanned very thick chiselled thigh.

Ron's eyes widened at the sight.

"No, no, no, Molly just spun me around one too many times I need to lay down, but thanks dear." Arthur said not even acknowledging the pharmacy she was carrying around.

"You're going to give my dad a heart attack flashing him like that." Ron said taking a sip of his beer.

"What? My leg? Who are you? McGonagall?" Anna asked with mild annoyance.

"That dress also seems rather revealing now" Ron said pointing to her chest. "When did you sprout tits?" He asked clearly remembering she used to be as flat as Hermione.

Anna gaped like a fish at his nerve. "1997! Is this the first time you've seen my cleavage since the Ball?"

"Guess so." He tried to remember any other occasion, but she always was wearing her baggy lime green robes and during his wedding her dress had the chest completely covered.

"It's called aging, arsehole, and couples sometimes gain weight after they start living together, as you well know." Pointing at his general direction given he looked heavier than a year ago.

"It's called sympathetic weight gain!" He said defensively.

"It's called overindulging on all of your wife's pregnancy cravings!" She laughed when his ears turned red. "I'm just kidding! It actually suits you; you look happy."

"Thanks, so do you."

"I am."

"And your tits suit you too."

Anna started punching his arm like a speed bag. "You can't say that to me! I'm your sister now!"

"OW! That's exactly how I talk to my sister!

"Arse."

"Where are your brothers?"

"I don't know. They went into hiding in America before the war."

"Parents?"

"Mum's dead, Dad isn't…unfortunately."

"That bad huh?"

"Worse."

"Promise me you'll tell me one day."

"Not today."

"Are all those legal?" Ron asked pointing at her leg.

"What? Think I'm smuggling contraband?"

"…I think you're smuggling melons in that dress…"

She slapped his arm again.

"I'M KIDDING!" He said laughing.

"You are turning into Fre…" She stopped herself; her smile fell.

Ron caught it, it was time to change the subject. "Got anything on there to calm down a pregnant witch back home?" Ron asked.

She shook her head snapping out of it. "Trouble in paradise?" She asked worried.

"Hermione hates me being an Auror." He took another drink. "She worries too much."

"I don't blame her. You do get into a lot of trouble."

"I'm being extra careful, now that I don't have my personal healer." He winked at her. "I can't let Harry down, I don't love it, but it pays the bills, and I have a baby on the way."

Anna got a flash of something that made her want to cry, so she covered her eyes with her palms pretending her eyes were itchy. "Go work with George, he needs the help."

"What? Is that a vision?" Ron asked curiously.

"Yep." Anna said, still trying to discreetly wipe her eyes. "You'll be much happier there."

"Huh…. woah…Ouch!" Ron stood up as the Enchanted Galleon fell out of his breast pocket looking red hot.

Anna looked stunned for a second before she turned and yelled. "CHARLIE! MOLLY! GO GET ARTHUR AND YOUR THINGS, HERMIONE IS IN LABOR!" Molly squealed and ran up the stairs with Charlie behind her.

She pulled up her dress and grabbed a potion tube from her holster and put it in Ron's shirt pocket. She pulled in her brother-in-law kissing his cheek snapping him out of the reverie of his thoughts.

"Congratulations Daddy, you're in for a long night, here's a little something to sober you up during that time, now take your parents and go to your witch." Anna said pushing Ron towards the stairs.

19. 2021 The Burrow beginning of summer break

Ron Weasley sat late one evening at the Burrows kitchen table across from his mother and father, it was his first time telling anyone about the divorce by himself. Hermione had been there when they told their children, as well as Harry and Ginny. Ginny warned Ron to tell his parents next before they heard it from someone else, but given Hermione was so busy with her re-election campaign Ron would be by himself giving the news.

They took it very well; they were silent nodding for most of it until Molly started crying silently. Ron stood and went to sit next to Molly to rub her back soothingly giving her his handkerchief.

"Oh, mum, don't cry, maybe this is for the best…We got out before we hated each other." Ron said trying to cheer her up.

"I just can't believe it, first Charlie, now you…" Molly said blowing her nose.

"It's just... Wait!? What about Charlie?!"

"Hi Ron."

Ron turned around, there behind them was Anna, she was in a very familiar white nightgown, with a blue knitted shawl on top, probably one of his mum's Christmas gifts to her. She looked as miserable as he felt, her ash blond hair was now shades lighter from multiple silver blond hairs in it. It was still parted to cover her left eye, the back was put up in a messy bun with her ebony wand sticking out, her visible eye was red and had purple bags under it from lack of sleep, she looked frail and had a weak smile on her face.

"Anna..." A horrible thought crossed through his mind. "Mum, dad, I need to talk to Anna privately, is that okay?"

Sure honey, I must get dinner started anyway. Molly said patting Ron's cheek affectionally.

Ron took Anna's arm and almost dragged her outside without a word, closing the door behind him. Anna was a bit surprised but didn't put up a fight, she assumed her ex-brother-in-law was about to berate her about her divorce.

Ron lowered his voice and looked at her intently. "Anna, is Charlie okay?"

"What?" Anna was taken aback. "Yeah, it was a mutual thing." She said in a rehearsed tone.

"No…I mean is he okay…physically?" Ron tried to clarify.

"What?! You know I would never hurt him!" Anna said offended he would imply something like that.

Ron looked slightly horrified before asking. "You did the 'Warrior's farewell' didn't you?"

"How the fuck do you know about that?!" Anna asked shocked.

20. 1996 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Both Fred and George sat on the floor, a dazed look in their eyes, the empty vials of love potion rolled on the floor lazily, as they slowly looked at her and said dreamily in unison. "Hi Anna."

Anna slapped her own face trying to sober up a bit and stood up. She took her wand from her hair letting it down and conjured up the quick quotes quill with the floating notepad in front of her. There was no use in wasting this experiment; she might as well take notes for improving the formula. She slowly approached Fred first with her wand lit up evaluating his pupil dilation. She smiled and spoke softly. "Hi guys, how are you feeling?"

When she was kneeling down closer to his face he reached up and placed her hair softly behind her ear and stroke her cheek. "Great, now that you're here." Fred swayed lightly as he spoke and sighed. "We missed you so much this year Anna." Fred said hand still held out as she now moved towards George.

"You would have loved tormenting Umbridge with us." George said from his place on the floor drunkenly.

Anna was all business, she was keenly observing their skin changes, breathing etc. "Aw, that's so sweet you guys, I probably wouldn't have though, all the healer positions are ministry appointed..."

Fred suddenly interrupted her "Why didn't you ask one of us to the Yule ball?"

"What?" Anna asked confused.

"You didn't even know Ron then." Fred said looking at her intensely.

"You've known us for seven years now." George added.

"You really hurt our feelings." Fred whined.

"Pupils dilated, breathing increased, dial down the neediness." She dictated to her notepad then plopped back down on the floor between them. "Guys, I had a vision, it was your brother I needed to ask, not you."

"Did a vision also tell you to shag Sato's brains out?" Fred spat out bitterly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Fred you are out of line! Note to self, tone down jealousy." The quill happily wrote.

"Well, did it?" Fred asked again.

Anna leaned in toward Fred menacingly "Yes, it did, happy?"

"No, not really." Fred said, defeated.

"You see, we were really excited when you asked out Ronnie." George told her softly.

"Cause we thought if you liked his type, we had a chance." Fred said calmly.

"But if the only reason you asked him out was a vision, we're back to square one." George said, still smiling dozily.

Anna looked up and exhaled dramatically, she looked down still slightly annoyed and blushed. "I-I do have a weakness for gingers, I'll admit it."

Fred suddenly inhaled loudly.

"Funny enough I think it started my first day at Hogwarts actually, there was this super fit ginger Gryffindorf head boy who welcomed me, I was so nervous and embarrassed I never got his name." Anna said smiling.

"Dammit Anna! That was Bill." Fred said standing up angrily.

"He's our oldest brother." George said sweetly.

Anna laughed "Well damn, I may end up your sister-in-law yet."

"He's taken." Fred said, leaning on the table.

"He's dating Fleur Delacour." George said in an exaggerated accent and giggled.

"Wow." Anna said, genuinely impressed.

"Why not us?" Fred said again, going down on his knees less than a foot in front of Anna.

"Note to self, decrease intensity." The quill wrote down on the notepad. "Guys I like you a lot, but you're just full of yourselves…I like shy guys." She said leaning back a bit from Fred, wand ready in hand.

"Give us a chance, luv." Fred said, stroking her cheek again softly.

"We'll grow on you." George added.

"Let us take you on a night on the town." Fred said reaching for her wandless hand and stroking it. "You won't regret it."

Anna was silently contemplating her options and thought it'd be good to see how much this thing affected their interactions in society. "Sure, I can eat. Give me 5 min to get ready and we'll head out."

She ditched her tights and tunic and took the black tank top she had underneath her clothes and magically enlarged it a bit to make it into a little black dress.

They ended up at a seedy pub in Knockturn Alley with some decent food and a small dance floor. Given the high numbers of couples looking over their shoulders while making out she assumed this place was frequented by those who didn't want their relationships known. As good a place as any to test the potions out.

After some food and a few more rounds of Firewhisky shots the trio were talking in their booth happily.

"Why the kissing?" Asked George, slurring his words a little bit.

"When you asked me out? Aw it's stupid really, my brother Auggie used to tell me it was really terrifying asking girls out, and worst were the ones who were downright cruel about it and laughed in his face. I swore I wouldn't be cruel to anyone who really put themselves out there to ask me out." She smiled and sipped her drink again.

"Then what about the line-up of gits outside Madam Pomfrey's?" Fred asked, snickering.

"Those idiots weren't asking me out, they heard some rumour that I would kiss anyone who asked me out and were just trying to snog me. The truth is I only kissed guys that actually put an effort into trying to know me before asking me out, I can actually count them in one hand." She said wiggling her fingers lazily.

"I asked you out tons of times, but you only kissed me once, what gives?" Fred said leaning in almost bumping his face with her hand.

Anna playfully pushed his face away. "Out of all those times you only blushed once. I'm a sucker for guys that blush."

"Ohhhhhh now I get it!" George said happily slumped in his seat.

"And why not, you know, actually go out with us?" Fred asked still crowding her a bit.

Anna's face darkened. "And give my dad a potential hostage to force me into the death eaters? He did it to Francis, I wasn't going to give him leverage."

Fred smiled and leaned in again. "I wouldn't mind a little torture to be with you."

Anna stood up shockingly sober and pulled out her wand again conjuring up her quill. "I don't think I can stomach your conversations right now. Note to self, alcohol seems to not alter the effects."

"Let's go dance boys."

A handful of witches and wizards danced on the tiny dance floor to a loud and fast Weird Sisters' song, the trio joined jumping and swaying spiritedly. After a couple of songs, the potion seemed to kick in resulting in the twins slowly invading Anna's space until both pushed themselves towards her trapping her between them as they began kissing her neck and shoulders at the same time.

Anna's eyes widened before slowly burring each of her hands in their ginger locks and pulling them back, gently. "Ok guys, time to go, she stepped out of the twin sandwich and pulled out her wand quill and notepad again. "Dancing increases effects."

They proceeded to pay the tab, and apparated back in the twins flat once more.

Both twins still seemed to be under the increased effect, their hands seemingly unable to stop touching her, even as she tried swatting them away.

Anna sighed looking slightly annoyed but knowing well enough it was the potion's effect. She liked the twins, she really did. She even considered them her friends, and Merlin knew she didn't have a lot of those, she even thought they were quite attractive. She knew it was time to test the safeguards, she just had to be a damn professional about it and not make a big deal out of it. She had already kissed them once upon a time.

She exhaled loudly. "Might as well get over this part..." She turned to her left where George was caressing her arm and took his ginger locks in her right hand pushing him down towards her mouth crashing their lips together. George only too eagerly responded, quickly taking her waist and pulling her towards him. The truth was Anna had only ever snogged one person before and she suddenly melted in George's arms, which she knew she couldn't entirely blame on the whisky; a second set of hands and lips on her arms and shoulders pulled her out of her trance. Fred. She slowly remembered her job, testing the safeguards, right, she wasn't going to be able to do this with both at the same time. She pulled out her wand, turned around and pushed Fred back with a spell making him whimper and fall back into a chair, she followed it up with a Petrificus Totalus before sweetly trying to explain. "Sorry Fred, you'll have to wait your turn."

She turned back to George resuming their snogging and proceeded to let her hands slowly slide down his back. Once her hands were dangerously close to his rear, the twin took her hands in his, pulling them gently away. She smiled against his mouth, frankly, impressed by their magical skills. She felt more confident now, placing her hands on George's chest and started sliding them down slowly, once again once she was in close proximity to his manhood, his hands appeared to stop her in their tracks. She laughed and pushed him towards the bed, straddling him only to find him subtly denying access to sit on his crotch.

"Impressive" She smiled.

Every move she made to try to get him to touch her breast, bum or crotch, were deflected, and even when she tried to rub herself on his leg, he pulled her off softly.

Anna laughed "Really guy's if you've put half your wits into something more productive you would've already won the Slime & Potion Concoction Award, this is amazing."

George was still smiling up drunkenly at her, holding her waist, while she tried to straddle his leg.

"Ok, last test…Please shag me, George." She said as overly acted as humanly possible.

Suddenly George's eyes widened, and he quickly carried Anna off him and to her feet before he shook his head groggily. "It worked, didn't it?" He asked, smiling.

Anna beamed. "Better than I ever thought, you guys really are brilliant!" She said excitedly.

"Um, what are you gonna do with Fred?" Asked George kind of apprehensively looking at his petrified brother.

Anna turned to look at Fred who could only blink. "I'm not sure, he displayed a higher effect than you."

George sat up on the bed. "That's because he likes you more." He said nonchalantly.

Anna walked towards Fred watching him intently. "I figured as much; I want to test how long the potion lasts on him."

"Well, this was an 8-hour batch, by morning he should be back to normal if you don't activate the safeguard." George explained.

"Mmm, I'll use a sleeping charm on him, and test him out in the morning, but it would be better if I stay over to observe him." Anna said looking at Fred's pupils once more.

"I'll take the couch. You can use my bed." George said, pulling out fresh linens from a closet.

"Thanks" Anna smiled.

She proceeded to levitate Fred to his bed taking off his shoes, belt, jacket and shirt and charm him to sleep before she lifted the petrification curse.

"Do you mind if I shower? You guys kind of drooled on me." Anna asked George before heading to the bathroom.

"Go ahead." George said chuckling.

"And could I borrow a shirt or something I could sleep in?" Anna said popping her head out of the bathroom.

"Sure." George said, tossing her a shirt. "And Anna…"

She caught the shirt. "Yes George?"

"Thanks again for doing this." George said with a genuine smile as he took off his shirt.

"Anytime George, never a dull moment with you guys." Anna said from behind the bathroom door.

Morning came in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and Anna slept soundly in a comically large shirt for her. An overly chipper voice woke her from her slumber.

"Morning luv." Fred beamed.

She blinked confused.

"Breakfast in bed for our lovely guest." Fred said putting a tray down in front of her with tea and a full English breakfast.

"Fred? What time is it?" Anna groggily asked a little hungover.

"Nearly 9am luv." Fred smiled at her.

George's head poked up from the couch with a murderous look at his twin.

"12 hours and your experimental Amortentia is still kicking." Anna told George, rubbing her eyes.

George groaned. "There goes the idea it was only and 8-hour batch."

She took the tray and drank some tea and a couple of bites from her toast, before offering some to Fred.

"I already had mine." Fred said, still beaming at her.

She motioned him to sit next to her in bed as she continued eating and he complied.

"How are you feeling Fred?" She asked between bites.

"Fantastic, knowing you're here." He said dreamingly.

"Are you hung over?" She asked pulling down his eyelids to see his pupils better.

"Not at all." He said smiling and took her hand from his face to kiss it.

"Mmmm" She reached for her wand and the quick quotes quill appeared once more. "Potion reduces hangover effects…interesting."

"No, it doesn't!" George said frowning, he sat on the other side of the bed, he had 2 vials of hangover potion, one for him and one for her. He gave her one vial, chugged the other, and then took a piece of toast from Anna's plate.

"Potion reduces hangover effects, only if active." Anna corrected to her quill, chugging the vial as well.

"That's hers!" Fred growled at George.

"Fred luv, do you mind tidying up the kitchen for me please?" Anna asked sweetly, caressing his cheek.

"Whatever you need luv." Fred jumped up to quickly obey her command.

"So, what are you gonna do to him?" George asked, lowering his voice while piling some beans on his toast and taking a bite of the blood sausage.

"I guess I'll test the safeguards on him as well, see how the prolonged duration of the potion may affect them." Anna said in a low voice scarfing down her eggs.

"I don't want to see that; I'll be in the bathroom taking a shower." George said piling some sausage on his toast to take to the bathroom.

"George, leave the door opened a bit, in case this gets out of hand, I may need your help." Whispered Anna.

"You don't think he would…?" George asked worried.

"I have no idea if the safeguards will remain in place after this long." Anna said worried.

"If he gets riled up just ask him to shag you, that triggers the finite on the potion." George said reassuringly.

"Does it have to be the word 'shag' exclusively?" Anna asked just out of academic curiosity really.

"Any common synonym should work." George said pensively.

"Ok, will do, just keep your ears peeled in case it doesn't work." Anna said seriously.

George nodded and proceeded to grab clean clothes and head to the bathroom.

Anna finished her breakfast and put her tray aside exhaling once more.

"Fred luv, could you sit here with me please." She yelled a little too loudly to give George the heads up inside the bathroom with the door slightly ajar.

"Sure thing luv." Fred almost sprinted to her side, sitting a little too close to her to be acting normally.

"You look so good in my shirt." He said lazily, touching the shirt's collar down to the first button.

"Thanks." Anna said nervously.

She slowly took her right hand to caress Fred's cheek which earned her a contented sound from Fred and she reached up to tangle her fingers in his ginger locks to pull him down for a kiss.

The second their lips touched she got a vision.

'A grown-up Ron and an earless George tending the bustling store, George apparently happily married to Angelina Johnson with a baby in their arms, the Weasley family in a funeral service with George crying over the body of Fred. A celebration of Voldemort's defeat in a badly damaged Hogwarts, an explosion in Hogwarts with debris hitting Fred, killing him instantly. A badly bleeding earless George transforming from Harry Potter to himself being carried by Lupin, a brutal aerial fight with a curse heading straight for George's head disguised as Harry Potter but deflected by a pink flash just enough to only sever an ear. Her vision of the Wonderwitch line with both twins tending the store happily. Then she saw herself saying to the twins: "Guess the Amortentia gave you memory loss, sorry I can't help you out boys, better luck next time." Then an image of herself casting an obliviate spell towards George, and finally herself in a very compromising position with the same twin while casting a spell she remembered all too well.'

"Warrior's farewell..." She whispered; lips still pressed to Fred's.

"What's that luv?" Fred pulled back slightly and to his horror, she screamed.

Tears came to her hysterically, she bawled and wailed.

Fred sat in front of her stroking her shoulders trying to comfort her. "Anna? What's wrong luv?"

George came running wand drawn, clutching a towel around his waist. Confused at the sight. "Fred, get away from her now!"

"I just kissed her!" Fred said honestly.

Anna looked up still bawling and suddenly clutched desperately at Fred's neck in a bone crushing hug. "Fred, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Anna, what's happening?" George tried prying her away from Fred, but she wouldn't move. "Anna honey, you are scaring the ever-living fuck out of me what's going on?"

Fred was still stroking her gently making soothing noises. "It's okay luv, it's ok…"

"Accio Chocolate." George took the bar, and broke a piece, sitting next to the hysterical girl before putting the piece in her mouth, "Anna, eat this, it'll make you feel better."

After several excruciating minutes the chocolate started calming her enough to let her take deep breaths again, even when the tears wouldn't stop streaming down her cheeks. She slowly let go of Fred but took his hand and wouldn't let go.

"Anna, can you tell me what's wrong now?" George asked softly.

She took a deep breath and grimaced. She turned to Fred and then looked back down covering her eyes with her shaking hand, she needed to talk to Fred without the spell, she was furious at herself, at her stupid cursed existence, with a croaking gravelly voice she yelled with all the self-hate she felt. "FUCK ME!" Before bawling again.

After that Fred snapped out if the potion's effect, George put clothes back on and Anna managed to stop crying while sipping on a strong cup of tea. The three of them sat down solemnly at the twins' table.

"You had a vision, didn't you?" George asked finally.

Anna nodded.

"It's really bad, isn't it?" Fred asked.

She grimaced and nodded again.

George took a deep breath before asking. "What do we have to do?"

Her voice felt gravelly after crying for so long. "Have any of you two heard of the 'Warrior's farewell'?"

Both twins shook their heads.

"It's old magic, ancient really. It's a protective spell, witches used to cast it on warriors they loved but had no chance of ever marrying. It was a…courtly love thing." She took another sip of her cup to help the intense lack of saliva she felt. "It's not capable of stopping a direct Killing Curse, but it's strong enough to work kind of like an automatic shield charm. It can slightly deflect a mortal attack once. It will still hit you, but it won't kill you." She took another sip.

The twins' eyes widened.

"How come we've never heard of it?" Asked George, almost outraged of his own ignorance of this spell.

Anna looked him dead in the eyes and blushed ever so slightly. "Because it's a sex spell, it was forbidden to be taught in schools long ago, so it's been mostly forgotten."

They were both taken aback with her answer, and there was a beat of silence before Fred broke it. "How come you know about it?"

Anna still couldn't look directly at Fred without crying, so she looked at her cup. "Because it was placed on me. And I've placed it as well."

"Sato." George correctly guessed.

Anna nodded; she then showed the twins the part of her forehead always obscured by her side parted hair. There, right underneath her hairline above her left ear was a straight scar two to three inches long. "Dear old dad, wasn't too keen on me leaving his house, but the spell was strong enough to protect me so I could leave even when I couldn't fight back."

Fred ground his teeth seething at the thought of a father trying to mortally injure his own daughter.

Anna lowered her hair once more and looked sullen before speaking again. "There is something you guys need to understand about my visions, they cannot be changed. When I started getting them, I deliberately started sabotaging them only to discover I ended up doing exactly what I saw."

"The future is set in stone?" George asked.

"Yes." She said lowering her head with her voice cracking, tears stung in her eyes again.

"Are you crying?" Fred asked softly, trying to look her in the eyes.

"Yes, I'm crying! You prat. I need to tell you what I saw happening. But I don't want to." She snapped at him.

"Then out with it already! What? We all die?" Fred asked slightly exasperated.

"Only you Fred." She whispered; she couldn't bear looking in their direction, so she looked down as she explained. "I'm not going to be your business partner, I need to place the spell on George, afterwards I'm going to obliviate you both and blame the memory loss on the altered Amortentia. This war will escalate, both of you will get mortally wounded, first George, but he will have the spell deflected by the Warrior's farewell and survive, but you won't Fred, you will die at Hogwarts at the final battle. I'm so sorry." Her voice broke at the end.

"Wait! George gets to shag you?!" Fred asked outraged.

"THAT'S YOUR TAKEAWAY OF WHAT I SAID?!" Anna screamed at Fred.

"And we don't get to remember this conversation..." George mumbled worried.

"Fred, you are going to die soon! And there's nothing any of us can do to stop it." Anna said heartbroken.

"But you'll save Georgie..." Fred said looking down smiling.

"Why can't we remember?" Asked George.

"I assume, so you won't go looking for me anymore, or so you don't skip out on the war altogether out of fear for Fred. I really don't know; I just know it will happen." Anna said honestly.

"That spell could really help 'the Order' out, couldn't you teach it to them?" George asked hopeful.

"It took me months to learn it and cast it right, you have to love the person to an extent, and you practice it having sex, you see the problem in teaching it?" Anna asked rhetorically.

"Does that mean you love George?" Fred asked sullenly.

She chuckled bitterly. "I guess I love both you prats in a way, I don't really have that many friends."

"If you could teach it to me, maybe I could convince Hermione to learn it from me and she could place it on Ron and Harry, and Harry could place it on Ginny. That's half of us at least."

"You're forgetting the price of the spell, once you place it you can never feel romantic love for that person again, only this kind of mild friendship. Courtly love, remember?" She said bitterly.

"Besides, I don't think Hermione would be up for that Georgie." Fred said scowling trying to lighten the mood.

It worked, Anna chuckled slightly. "So, Harry and your sister…" Anna smiled at the thought.

"It's complicated." Fred said light-heartedly.

Anna exhaled and suddenly stood up and slammed her hands down on the table. "Enough idle chit chat, the future can't change, I need to obliviate you and the memory loss has to be convincing." She looked up at George before continuing. "George go take that shower; I'll gather what I need for the spell here."

"You are doing this now?!" Fred asked, looking almost horrified.

21. 2021 Outside the Burrow's door

"Fred left me a letter." Ron said solemnly.

"How didheknow about...?" Anna asked still wildly confused.

"It's a long story, I'll explain everything, but first tell me, is Charlie, okay? Physically?" He said pulling Anna to the bench outside to sit them down.

Anna was still very confused but thought honesty would be the best policy. She sighed before saying. "He lost 3 fingers, but he's otherwise fine."

"You saved him, didn't you?" Ron said in a very loving tone that she frankly didn't feel she deserved.

She nodded. "And he's going to save metoo." She said paler than usual.

2020 A year before in Romania

"Charlie! Stop fussing, let me see how yesterday's burns look." Anna said play wrestling her husband in their tent in the Romanian wilderness.

"Hahahaha stop you're tickling me." Charlie said incapacitated with laughter at her poking at his sides.

"It's not my fault you're so sensitive." Anna said untucking his shirt to try to see his back.

"Two can play at that game!" Charlie pinned Anna down and tickled her now.

"NO! CHARLIE STOP! HAHAHAHA YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME PEE!" Anna said tears streaming from her eyes.

Charlie stopped, and looked lovingly at his wife of now 15 years. "Merlin, I love you." He said smiling.

"I love you too, you beautiful stubborn man." Anna said raking her fingers through his red locks and pulling him down for a kiss.

As their lips touched Anna's back arched, and she shrieked like a banshee as a vision hit her full force.

'Charlie falling from a top of a dragon headfirst into the freezing charm of another tamer trying to put out flames, a pink flash colliding with the light blue stream making him spin mid-air so the charm hit him only in his left arm, instead of his head, chattering 3 of his fingers off instantly and hitting his head open on a rock. Him waking up in a hospital bed and seemingly not recognizing Anna or at least being very cold towards each other. Charlie with slightly longer hair, silver fingers and without his wedding ring kissing a younger pretty dragon tamer Anna recognized. Anna in the Burrow with longer greying hair walking at night. Hermione kissing Draco Malfoy at the property edge. Ron and her crying together with a bottle of Firewhisky in the centre of a table in a place that looked vaguely familiar. The vision ended with a blinding flash of pink coming out of her chest and a scream.

ANNA! WHAT'S WRONG?!

Anna was gasping and wailing uncontrollably clutching at Charlie, she couldn't remember ever having such a horrible vision.

It took her more than 30 minutes and some calming draught to be able to speak.

She sniffed and took her husband's hands.

"I'm dying, aren't I?" Charlie asked almost resigned to his fate.

"No" She sobbed. "But once I tell you what I saw you may wish you would be."

22. 2021 Outside the Burrow

"Oh no!". Ron immediately understood now, she was going to be in mortal danger, but she didn't know when, that's why she wasn't eating or sleeping, she was scared. He pulled her into a tight hug. And she began sobbing into her ex-brother-in-law's chest.

Ron was paler than usual, thinly veiled anger boiling under the surface.

"How did I not know this? Why didn't you tell me? I can tell Harry to make sure you are safe from whatever is going to attack you."

"No point, it will still happen." She deadpanned.

On the bright side Charlie was alive, and she was going to live as well. "I don't like what you and Charlie did. But I'm so glad you did it." Ron said hugging her tighter.

Anna still didn't know how or what Ron knew about the spell, a horrible thought entered her mind, and she pulled back to look him in the eyes. "Ron you didn't, did you? Is that why you're getting a divorce? Did someone threaten you two?"

Ron laughed. "Plenty of people threaten us Anna, but no, it was just good old fashioned drifting apart." He sighed and looked up at the stars thinking. "But if I still had it, I don't think I would have traded my romantic love of Hermione for her life."

That surprised her. "Maybe that's why you're getting a divorce." Anna said frowning.

"Hey! Fuck you!" Ron said without any real bite to his words.

"Just taking the mickey out of you little brother." Anna said smiling, she really needed more smiles in her life right now.

"Well…I'm not your little brother anymore if I understand it correctly." He said matter-of-factly.

She shrugged her shoulders. "What about you two? Is it really over? Did you at least try?" Anna still couldn't believe it.

"Oh, we tried, for years! I mean I still love her to pieces, but we're terrible together."

"Tell me about Malfoy." She asked Ron throwing him off guard.

"Malfoy? You're interested in the ferret? I mean he's a widower, you may have a shot." Ron said confused.

"No you arse! Wait…he's a widower?" She asked surprised.

"Yeah, he works for Hermione, he's still arrogant as all hell but he's not so bad. I can put in a good word for you." Ron said teasingly.

"No…I don't...what does he do?" Her curiosity was more important than clarifying the situation.

"He's her re-election campaign manager, after the whole time-turner chaos, purebloods wanted her out of office, so they demanded another election. He basically kisses up to all the purebloods for her. Don't worry, I got you." He said with a wink.

"Ron stop! I'm not interested in Malfoy! I just want information!" Anna said irritably.

Ron thought for a second. "Well...after the war Mionee and I broke up when she returned to Hogwarts to do her 7th year and I became an Auror; she got engaged to Malfoy during that time, if you can believe it."

Anna almost fell out of the bench in surprise. "WHAT?! How did I not know about this?"

"The Greengrasses. They paid a hefty sum to keep it all quiet. They made them break off their engagement, Lucius had already promised Draco to Astoria behind Narcissa's back for some sort of business deal, an Unbreakable Vow was involved."

Her vision was starting to make sense. "So, Hermione and Malfoy have a history?"

"Yeah, and believe me I was not happy when he started working for her. We had many arguments about that." Ron said remembering those fights. "She would bring me to these galas full of stuffy rich people, they would start asking me about the war and they'd look at me like something on the bottom of their shoe when they found out I was now working at the joke shop. I hated every second of it. Sometimes she would leave me in a corner, and I would see her and Malfoy go up to each person there and make them laugh and pledge their galleons to their causes while I stuffed my face with horrid tiny food."

"It sounds dreadful" Anna said honestly.

"Years ago, before the kids were all in Hogwarts, I would take her over to the Burrow to spend family time together every weekend, Harry, Ginny, George, Angelina, Bill, Fleur even Percy and Audrey sometimes would occasionally come too, and all the cousins would play together and run wild for days on end. All the kids would sleep on the floor in the living room or the kitchen even, and we'd stay in my old room." He said remembering fondly.

"That sounds amazing." Anna said longingly. She remembered the dragon camps fondly as well, it was a very similar experience, but there were no children, Anna loved kids but Charlie and her knew it was dangerous to have one around the dragons and she didn't want to risk passing her Seer curse to anyone, from the beginning they had agreed on no kids.

"It was, but she hated it, she would say it was too crowded, that the kids needed to do their schoolwork, that she had things to do at our house. So, she started leaving us there and not joining in. Now I get so lonely even when she's in the same room with me. We have nothing to talk about. She's all politics and I'm...not, we basically hate what the other does, and I make her miserable trying to spend time with her. But she loves her job, and I admire her for it. I really do wish her the best." Ron smiled sadly.

"She's an only child Ron…it's different when you are raised with siblings, she probably needed her space." Anna said easily seeing Hermione's point of view.

"So is Harry!" Ron said defensively.

"Not the same thing! She was an only child in a comfortable, loving home, and pretty well off financially for what I remember. Nothing like Harry." She explained.

"More like Malfoy…" Ron said plainly.

Anna tried to change the subject. "Your mum's been lovely about all this, letting me live here until I find a place of my own. The few non-Weasley related friends I had died in the war, and I really didn't have many to start with." Anna said a little too sincerely.

"She still loves you to pieces, I can tell." Ron told her honestly.

"Don't tell her about the spell though, Charlie is already dating another girl, let her think we just drifted apart as well." Anna said pleadingly.

Ron was confused. "Why? Why not tell her? You saved her son, gave up on your own happiness for him, if anything she would love you even more."

"Because if she finds out I know this spell, she may resent me for not saving Fred, I know it's stupid and it doesn't make sense..." Tears streamed down her face against her will. "I… I can't explain it but after I found out he died I was devastated for years…I…I think I loved him enough to have made the spell work."

Ron looked uncomfortable. "Anna, you really have to read Fred's letter...Tomorrow, come over to the shop, I'm living in the flat on the top floor. You can read it there."

"Fine, be all cryptic…" Anna said exasperated standing up and heading towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked surprised.

"To get away from you! And to help Molly with dinner, I'll see you tomorrow at your place." Anna said pulling on the door and stepping inside.

"Wait! I'm staying for dinner." Ron said following her before she could close the door.

23. 2021 The Burrow beginning of summer break

"Hi Molly!" Hermione stood in the front door of the Burrow in a smart navy pantsuit.

"Hello Dear, oh and Draco, long time no see." Molly said waving to a suit wearing Draco behind Hermione.

Draco nodded in acknowledgement as he stood 10 feet away from the doorway dictating a memo in a quick quote quill to send as soon as possible.

"I'm sorry about him, follows me everywhere these days, with all the preparation for the re-election. Are Rose and Hugo ready to go?" Hermione asked embarrassed.

"You just missed them, they left about half an hour ago with Harry and Ginny, they asked me to tell you they were going to catch the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch match with their cousins and swing back to your place afterwards."

"OH! Okay, I guess that's fine." Hermione said smiling but the smile didn't touch her eyes.

"Hermione, we must hurry your reservations are in 5 minutes." Draco said consulting his watch.

Hermione turned around with thinly veiled fury and in a harsh voice ordered: "Cancel it, I lost my appetite."

She turned back around with a wide fake smile: "Lovely to see you Molly, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a walk. Goodbye."

She turned on her heel and stormed off towards de property's edge.

Draco was left bewildered and took a beat to understand he now had to catch up to her. "Hermione! What? Thank you for your vote!" He said towards Molly who was bewildered with this whole exchange.

Draco ran off after Hermione.

At the edge of the property once the house was just a spec in the distance, Hermione began to sob.

"Seriously witch! This are dragonhide boots you're making me thread through mud with!"

"Bugger off then!"

"Hermione? What's wrong?" Draco said standing behind her putting his hand on her shoulder.

"They hate me." She sobbed. "My own children hate me! They find any excuse to ditch me whenever they can."

"Of course they do, they're teenagers! It's perfectly natural." Draco said trying to soothe her.

"They want to live with Ron, in that hovel of a place! Hugo doesn't even have his own room! I would only get to see them on weekends!"

"Thank Merlin for that!" Draco said sincerely, he knew Hermione's schedule she was in no position to play house Monday thru Friday.

That earned him a death stare. "Do you know how many weekends that is Draco? TEN! I only get to see my children 20 days in a year! And that's only if they don't have prior weekend plans with other people! Hermione said almost stomping her foot on the ground.

Draco gave a step back and tried to defuse the situation. "Well, if Rose has dates with Scorpius, I can tell him to keep it in the Manor and that way you can join us anytime you want."

"Thanks Draco…" She knew he meant well. "…but our kids already think we're shagging, maybe lounging around after office hours at your place wouldn't be the best way to deny it." She said forlorn.

Draco's face softened. "Would it really be so terrible? If it were true?" He took her hand. "Hermione, I still love you, nothing would make me happier than for all those rumours to be true."

"Draco..." Hermione said avoiding his eyes.

He took a step forward and placed her face between his hands to force her to look at him. "What? I'm single and so are you! We did what society expected of us, can't we be together now?

He kissed her passionately and she responded in kind but as he trailed kisses down her neck she was hit by reality.

"The election..." She whimpered.

Draco felt as if he had been splashed with a bucket of ice water. He pried himself away from Hermione and slicked back his hair groaning. "Bugger! You're right...I'm still barely tolerated at best. I'm sorry..."

Hermione now took his face in her hands and looked deep in his grey eyes trying to pry him out of his self-pitying spiral. "After the election."

He gave her a weak smile and took her palm and kissed it.

They dissaparated together afterwards with a pop never noticing a stunned white barn owl that had been resting on a nearby tree.

24. 2021 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

"Hey Anna. Come in." Ron welcomed her still in his flashy work suit.

"Thanks." Said Anna stepping in and taking in the place.

The flat was a roomy two-bedroom flat, each bedroom door was open and looked like mirror images of each other, they both had in-suite bathrooms, but curiously only one bedroom had its own fireplace instead of the usual placement in the living room and a Juliet balcony; there was a half bath next to the entrance and a big open concept kitchen and living room with big cozy couches that looked like they turned into beds.

"Something wrong?" Ron asked worried.

"No, I'm just having the strangest case of déjà vu, I feel like I've been here before, but I can't recall it." She said rubbing her temple.

"You have." Ron said.

"What?"

"Come inside I'll explain everything."

Anna handed him a paper bag before entering. "Here, I assume you're out of salt."

Ron opened the bag and looked inside, there was a container of salt inside, he smiled. "Thanks, you are right I am out of salt." He looked around and grabbed a bottle of Firewhisky on the mantel. "Here, you'll probably need this."

Anna could recall her vision and knew this was heading to be a very sad night. "That bad, huh?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

That threw her off.

They went inside and sat on the big couch facing each other, placing the bottle on the coffee table.

"After I quit being an Auror…" Ron said opening the bottle and pouring it in 2 glasses. "I started working at the shop with George."

"I remember…" she said taking a sip. "I suggested it."

"Yes, well, downstairs there is an office, and in that office are matching desks. One is George's the other was Fred's, now it's mine."

Anna felt a knot in her throat. She took another sip to push it down. She could never explain why all these years after, Fred's death still hurt the most, she lost much closer people to her in the war than a boy who just constantly followed her at school.

"Inside that desk was a letter, apparently Fred knewIwould eventually open the desk's drawer, and it said: 'Ron for your eyes only, do not show this to George'"

"I took the letter recognizing Fred's handwriting. And opened it alone, I'll admit, part of me was fearing it was a prank of some sort, but what I found inside...I'll read it to you."

"Hey little brother, I don't have a lot of time, I'm heading to Hogwarts with the Order after I finish writing this letter, but I couldn't in good conscience leave this world without telling someone what I just did."

Anna covered her mouth trying not to whimper, that meant Fred wrote this letter right before he died and not only that, he suspected he was going to die.

"Two years ago, George and I asked Anna Holmes for some help on some products in our shop."

Anna frowned, that was a lie no such thing happened...

"... sadly, during that interaction she had a vision, George getting hit by a mortal spell that was automatically deflected by a pink flash making it hit only his ear, and me dying in a battle at Hogwarts."

Anna's jaw dropped, no, it couldn't be...

"Now the only reason Georgie only lost an ear and not his life was because she worked a forbidden protection spell on him called 'Warrior's Farewell'"

Anna gasped and covered her mouth, she didn't remember any of this, she was obviously obliviated, but was George? Did she spend the last 15 years of her life at every family gathering talking to George amicably with him knowing they had slept together?! This was mortifying!

"You see, turns out she had a bit of a crush on Georgie and the spell takes your romantic feelings and turns them into a one-time automatic shield that deflects any mortal spell that isn't an Avada."

She groaned and covered her eyes embarrassed, that would explain why every time she remembered the twins at school there was no emotion attached to George, only Fred, she assumed it was because of the fact that Fred died, and grief was messing with her emotions.

"The price is you can never feel romantic love for that person again, her vision included obliviating Georgie of the whole thing, so he doesn't know or remember any of this."

"Oh, thank Merlin!" She blurted out. Relief washing over her.

"Now, Anna was very distraught that this meant she couldn't do anything to save me. She asked me to obliviate her to lessen her suffering, so I made a deal with her."

She crossed her arms and nodded without thinking, that made sense, that's why she couldn't remember any of this.

"I asked her to be with me until the day I perished, on the condition I would obliviate our entire relationship along with any memory of those visions from her mind to ease her suffering."

"WHAT!?" She blurted out.

Ron put up his hand to motion her to wait while he continued.

"Before erasing his memories Georgie and I came up with a plan, Georgie told me to tell him I had a special mission from the 'Order' and had to be able to sneak in and out of the flat unnoticed, he also suggested I tell him to be my cover, swapping nametags and ties periodically during business hours at the store to create my alibis, but it was actually to get him used to running the store by himself."

Anna had her hands covering her mouth in shock, the balcony was for her to fly in and out.

"We had the flat remodelled the next day, connected Anna's floo from St. Mungo's to mine and we practically secretly lived together ever since, she helped me develop the Wonderwitch line, established our production line, as well as hammer out kinks in several products, so they'd be safer, and she'd have less work in saint Mungo's."

Anna felt lightheaded.

"But Ronny, she made me so happy, and I couldn't bear the fact that no one would ever know I lived a lifetime's worth of happiness thanks to her."

Anna's whole body felt limp, her head was spinning, Fred Weasley? She had a relationship for TWO WHOLE YEARS WITH FRED WEASLEY?! A relationship that she couldn't remember...Is that why his death hurt so much? It had taken her close to a decade to be able to mention him in conversation without crying.

"I just came back from seeing her for the last time and keeping my promise, I obliviated her."

Ron's voice broke. "I know you can understand because you have Hermione, she was that for me Ronnie...So keep an eye on her and Georgie, please." Tears were now streaming out of both their eyes.

"Have a great life little brother." Ron stifled a sob.

"Love Fred."

Anna was shocked, slacked jaw with tears streaming down her face.

Ron put the letter aside and wiped his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "I'm so sorry Anna I was so busy with my own problems I didn't even honour my brother's last wish; I didn't know about you and Charlie."

Anna sprung forward and hugged him, they were both crying, this was the vision.

"I'm such a failure". He sobbed holding her tightly.

"Oh Ron, please don't do that, you are not a failure, George and I are still alive, you made 2 beautiful children that are growing up wonderfully in a huge loving family...You...you don't have to look after me..."

Ron pulled back from the hug and took her face in his hand to force her to look him in the eyes. "Well, I bloody well want to!"

Anna sobbed, heart pounding, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He took both her hands in his. "Let me make this right, let me honour my brother's wish, I was once an Auror, I can still put up a very good fight, live here, this was once your home as well, I can keep an eye on you better here."

"But it is still going to happen!"

"I KNOW! But I'll be damned if it happens to you alone! Whatever it is, we face it together. We know you'll survive, thanks to Charlie." Anna's face fell, she couldn't tell him that she didn't know if she would survive or not, she didn't see anything after the spell's activation only heard a blood curdling scream.

"But then you'll be in danger!" Anna said trying to deter him.

"I'll have the best healer in the world next to me, I'll be fine, you can hardly see my disembowelment scar." He said sweetly wiping the tears from her right cheek, making her smile.

"…I'll keep my med kit on me at all times then."

"Is that a yes on the moving in?"

"What about Rose and Hugo? Isn't that their room?"

"It's Rosie's, Hugo likes sleeping on the sofa bed, I talked to them about it, Rosie said you two can share the room specially since she only uses it during school breaks."

Anna smiled. "Are you secretly doing this so she can't sneak Scorpius into her room without you knowing it?"

Ron laughed. "You think I'd let her have the floo room?! That's my room! We can switch now if you want since it was technically made for you, that way you can move around more freely. I will admit I'd have more peace of mind knowing you could keep an eye on her in there."

"She's 16 now, isn't she?"

"Yeah…" Ron said warily.

"Want me to get her on the potion?" Anna asked slyly.

"SHE IS NOT SHAGGING THE SON OF THE FERRET!" Ron said defensively.

"RON, SHE IS ABSOLUTELY SHAGGING THE SON OF THE FERRET! They're teenagers! I can at least help you not become a grandad in your early forties." Anna said laughing.

"FUCK! Don't EVER say that again…bloody hell…you talk to her…but don't tell me…" Ron said almost turning puce.

"This is going to be fun." Anna smiled delighted.

"I'm regretting this already."

25. 1996 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Anna started looking through their ingredients before yelling. "GEORGE IF YOU COULD RUB ONE OUT IN THERE, THIS NEEDS TO LAST A FAIR AMOUNT OF TIME."

George's head popped out the bathroom wide eyed, looking at a conflicted looking Fred, and mouthed at him if he had just heard her correctly, Fred just nodded grabbing his head that felt like it was spinning. George made a pained look before closing the door.

George had never felt less "motivated" in his life.

"Great, you guys have everything, now I just need to mix these together, let the whole thing sit at least 5 min, and we'll be ready." Anna said putting a couple of ingredients aside and preparing a cauldron.

Fred grimaced at her words. "What happens if it's more like 40 minutes?"

"What?" Anna looked up from chopping some ingredients.

"Georgie is a slow wanker." Fred said scratching the back of his head kind of embarrassed for his brother.

"Huh." Anna said, putting down the knife and walking to the bathroom door knocking lightly. "George, could you give me a heads up when you finish…taking care of yourself?"

"O-okay." George said apprehensively from inside the bathroom.

Fred chuckled.

Anna exhaled and headed for the bed where she grabbed her wand and flicked it over the bed making the covers levitate and straighten out before falling back down.

Fred pondered his options for a second before deciding his course of action.

He snuck up to Anna's back and whispered into her ear in a playful tone. "Do you need to warm up as well?"

Anna stifled a laugh and continued straightening up the place. "I probably should, it's been a couple of years since 'I've done the deed'"

"Now that's just criminal." Fred said dramatically and proceeded to snake his hands gently around her hips and waist caressing and kissing her underneath her right ear. "Could I possibly interest you in letting me give you a hand with that?"

"Wow." She said incredulously and turned to face him without pulling away, burying her left hand gently in his hair looking straight into his eyes surprised. "You are taking this remarkably well."

Fred smiled bashfully and one of his hands went up to her top button flicking it playfully as he spoke. "The way I see it we're all gonna die eventually, and personally I'd never gotten bad news from the girl I've had a crush on for seven years, in my room, wearing what I'm certain is only my shirt with nothing else underneath. It really softens the blow." He finished his sentence opening her top button revealing a certain amount of cleavage.

"I could try to place the spell on you as well." She said lowering her hands to loosely wrap her arms around his neck, he really did tower over her.

Fred's finger lazily traced the shirt's collar caressing her cleavage softly. "I don't want it. I'll die anyway, right? I don't want you to shag me just because you need to place a spell on me or because a vision told you to. I want you to shag me because you want to."

Anna's eyes widened for a second. She had never actually shagged anyone just because she wanted to…

"…I mean it's only a dying man's wish after all." Fred added now playing with her second button.

"And how does this dying man know I'm not wearing anything underneath his shirt?" She said leaning in closer.

Fred actually blushed briefly and smiled.

"Well, I didn't feel any panties just now when I touched your hips, and the truth is, since I'm much taller than you I can see down your shirt from this angle." He smiled nervously.

That blushing crumbled any resolve she had left.

"It's okay Fred, I won't deny you anything, I'm just sorry I can't do more for yo..."

Fred's lips crashed into hers before she could finish speaking pushing her onto his bed.

Fred and Anna were laying bare side by side on the floor of the kitchen staring at the ceiling trying to catch their breaths.

Fred broke the silence first. "In this vision of yours did you actually see yourself erasing my memory or just George's?"

Anna mulled it over for a beat. "Just George's but I tell you both the memory loss was because of the potion when I leave."

Fred smiled the biggest smile she had ever seen. "I knew it, there's no way in Hell, I'm letting you erase that from me."

Anna pulled herself up on one elbow to look down on him seriously. "Now Fred we agreed…"

"I did no such thing!" Said Fred laughing. He was right.

Anna exhaled and laid back down on the ground staring up again. "Fred, I'm probably going to obliviate myself after this."

Fred's eyes went wide, and he turned his face away defensively. "I didn't think it was that bad for you." He sounded crushed.

Anna laughed sweetly making Fred turn around to see her, confused. "Fred! Seriously? That was honestly hands down the best shag of my life. I just can't possibly remember you this way; it would be too painful when you're gone."

Fred's eyes lit up and he placed both his arms behind his head. "Ruined you for anybody else, huh? I get it." He said smiling smugly.

"Fred…" Anna gave him a warning look.

Suddenly Fred sat up on one knee, reached for his wand and held her right hand solemnly pulling her up so she would sit up as well. "I vow to you, let me keep these memories and I'll obliviate you myself. I'll gladly die a happy man, and I won't tell anyone, not even George."

Anna smiled and caressed his cheek softly. "Put your wand away Fred, I trust you."

26. 2021 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Anna had moved in the next day and was emerging from the shower in her nightgown towelling her hair. "Hey Ron, you need to open that window."

The kids were spending the night at Hermione's and Ron was currently on the dining table tinkering with something.

"Why?" Asked Ron confused, the temperature was pretty nice inside.

"Don't know, vision." Anna said hanging up her towel to dry on her door.

Ron shrugged, stood up, walked up to the window at the left far side of the apartment, opened it, walked back and sat down.

"What are you doing?" Anna asked curiously brushing her hair sitting across from him on the table.

"George tried making boxing binoculars, but they seem to be stuck" Ron said trying to pry open the binoculars.

"Yikes, be careful with that then." She reached down pulled up her nightgown and pulled her wand from her modified thigh holster, Ron noticed she was carrying her med kit already.

"Anna, can I ask you something that's been bothering me?

"Sure, what's on your mind?

"Why is the 'Warrior's farewell' forbidden? I mean if the price is romantic love wouldn't anybody who had a crush on anybody unavailable might as well cast it on them to get rid of the problematic feelings and protect them?"

"Ron, it's complicated..."

"I mean I had a crush on Fleur in school, couldn't I cast it on her now that she's Bill's wife just so she's safe?"

"I don't think that'd be a good idea…"

"Or Harry!"

"You have a crush on Harry?!"

"No, you idiot! Tons of witches have crushes on him, he'd probably be invincible if all of them would cast the spell on him."

"I don't think Ginny would like that at all…"

"Why not?"

"Because it's a sex spell, you need to have sex with the person in order to transfer the protection."

"You shagged George?!"

"I assume so, I don't remember!"

"And more than likely Fred."

"Again, I do not remember."

"…and Charlie."

"That, I remember, but no feelings are attached to those memories at all, it's like they happened to somebody else."

"Next your gonna tell me Bill and Percy are on your list as well."

"Oh, bugger off! So, I like gingers, lots of people have types!"

"Did you ever think of casting that spell on me?"

"More times than I can count actually…"

"WHAT?!" Ron said surprised squeezing the binoculars more than intended. Two little punching fists extended out the side on springs so fast they extended until outside the window before the got back and rested lazily on the table.

"That was what the window was for!"

"That was wound way too tight!"

"Ron the truth is I had half a mind to cast it on you from the moment we met, once you told me all the near-death experiences you'd had your first 3 years at school, I mean a Basilisk!"

"In all fairness I didn't actually fight the Basilisk…"

"And all the ones that came afterwards…"

Ron grimaced remembering while absent mindedly rewinding the binoculars.

"But it was Mionee, I couldn't take your first time specially if you were in love with someone else…If I would've known you where single when I was treating you at St. Mungo's maybe…With George I assume it was easier because I knew he'd already been with Angelina in school but didn't date her afterwards."

"No, that was Fred."

"No, Fred only asked her to the Ball so she wouldn't go with someone else, since George couldn't muster the courage to ask her."

"What?!"

"I'm pretty sure Fred gave Angelina directions to George's bed that night."

"NO!"

"I wonder if she knows?"

"DO NOT TELL HER!"

"Of course not!"

"You really don't remember having a crush on George?"

"No, I remember everything during our school days, but there aren't any emotions tied to those memories. I do remember every emotion towards Fred clearly, how much he annoyed me following me around, how much he made me laugh when trying to figure out how I disappeared from the map, how lame his attempts at asking me out were, I even remember kissing him once. I remember a stupid vision that had me ending up naked in the prefect's bath at 3 in the morning just to realize Fred and George where there as well, I remember being so embarrassed because of Fred, lots of screaming from both of us, but no feelings towards George being there."

"How about now? He doesn't know you're here, but you see him from a distance almost every day when he comes and goes."

"Yeah, but I see him like a neighbour, I have no problem with him, but I do not feel the need to seek his company… almost like…Percy."

"Ouch. Wait? Are you sure you didn't cast the spell on Percy?"

That made her laugh.

"Dear Merlin, I hope not! I don't know anything anymore."

27. 1996 Fourth floor Weasley Wizard Wheezes

"George, may I come in?" Anna's head popped in the bathroom.

George assumed she needed to tinkle and growing up in a house shared by 9 he was used to people using the loo while he showered. "If you need to use the bathroom, go ahead, I'm used to sharing." George said from under the shower.

He jumped as he felt someone brush next to him inside the shower. "I didn't mean like that!" He yelled startled.

"Relax George, we've bathed together before remember?" Anna said cheekily, winking at him.

"Merlin! Anna, are you okay?" George was startled at the sight of her, he was shocked at the sheer amount of love bites and marks across her body. All the more apparent given the paleness of her skin.

Anna seemed confused and started inspecting herself for the first time, she groaned annoyed at the sight. "Dammit Fred!" She said under her breath and reached out of the shower for her wand which she began to use around her body chanting healing spells, erasing the marks. George still seemed stunned only managing to blink faster than usual at her nonchalance.

"Did I get everything?" She asked George looking down at herself.

"Your neck." George said in a hoarse voice.

Anna transfigured a towel into a large mirror, levitating it around her to see the marks and erase them, before transfiguring the mirror back into the towel placing it aside with her wand and lathering up all over.

"Fred's gone to the Burrow. I see you cast a silencing charm in here, that's…surprising." Anna said, continuing to wash herself off.

"Don't be, I only cast it maybe 5 minutes ago." He stepped back into the water to finish up quickly while Anna lathered herself more. "…Before that I had an extendable ear."

"Oh!" Anna said surprised.

George turned to see her mulling over her thoughts. "Yeah…" He said, almost embarrassed as he stepped out of the shower to dry himself off.

"I mean, obviously that wasn't part of the plan, and we weren't hiding it, but I didn't think you'd get the play by play." Anna said from the other side of the curtain.

"Well, you two were pretty loud even without eavesdropping." George said defensively.

"I thought it would…help you out?" Anna said, struggling to explain. "By Fred's nonchalance in the matter I would assume I'm not the first girl he shags within earshot."

"And you would be correct, except that wasn't shagging." George said. "I'm not sure what the fuck that was…"

"Are you okay?" Anna's head peeked out of the curtain.

George had a towel around his waist and another towelling his hair when he turned to her and said bitterly. "You know what Anna? Not really." He plopped down on the closed loo and took a deep breath looking at the floor as he continued. "First you tell me my twin brother is dying soon, then you tell me we have to shag so I don't die as well, then you pressure me saying I need to last a certain amount of time in order for the spell to work, then you go ahead and furiously fuck my brother. Sounds to which I wanked twice, and now you walk in on my shower, looking like a Womping Willow had its way with you, and frankly I'm getting stage fright with everything that's happening." George said slightly hysterical.

Anna smiled understanding. She quickly rinsed off all the soap, shut the water and stepped out wrapped in a towel. She kneeled in front of George and took his hand in hers.

"George, it's okay. The spell is going to work, you can relax, it's like it already happened. I know nothing of this is ideal. But if it's any consolation, you'll have a great life. You'll marry and have kids, and be happy, you will get through this."

"But, what about Fred?" George asked bitterly.

"You will live enough for the both of you. Besides he is milking this dying man last request thing to the very last drop." Anna said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

George smiled too. "Thanks for doing that, too bad he's not going to remember it."

Anna stood up and leaned on the wall. "I'm not going to obliviate him."

"What?!" George looked up stunned.

"He vowed to me; he won't tell a soul he is dying, not even you." She told him seriously.

"And he gets to die knowing he shagged you?" George asked with his eyebrow raised.

Anna chuckled. "Yeah."

George laughed. "The prat will die with a smile on his face."

They both laughed.

George smiled and looked up to Anna looking slightly weary. "Could we just talk for a little while?"

Anna smiled sweetly and nodded "Of course."

She headed for the door and opened it invitingly. "Come on, I'll fix us something to eat."

George put on a pair of boxers and asked. "Would you like something to wear?"

Anna still had only a towel wrapped around her, she looked down at herself and quickly said. "That's ok."

She took her wand and slightly transfigured her towel, so it now had a simple shoe lace style bow securing the towel like a strapless dress. "There." She wiggled to show it was now securely on. Other than her shapely thighs from running through the hospital all day there really wasn't much else to cover given she was so thin, hospital food was notoriously bad even in the wizarding world.

"Cute." George followed her still with a towel on his head towelling his hair.

They headed for the kitchen, and Anna motioned to the table. "Just sit and relax. I get the feeling that you're not used to being taken care of."

"I'm not." He said sitting and draping the towel across the back of his chair.

Anna made bowls levitate and mix around her swiftly, ingredients flew out of the cupboards and fridge, the oven roared to life and the tea kettle whistled happily.

"Who cooks?" Anna asked absentmindedly while supervising everything.

George gaped only ever seeing this level of cooking magic in his mother's kitchen. Before realizing he was asked a question. "Um...We both do, together. We're fairly decent at it. Nothing like this though."

Anna chuckled. "I've been in charge of cooking since I was 4, and it's a lot like making potions. So, I take it you don't do, breakfasts in bed often?"

Now George chuckled, again he realized a beat late he had to answer a question. "Unless we had a food fight...'cause the food ends up on the beds...I'm sorry, my comedy is off today." He really didn't feel like being funny today.

Anna looked at him and smiled. "That's okay you don't need to amuse me."

She levitated a cup and kettle towards him pouring a piping hot cup of tea. "Sugar?"

George took it and smiled. "Yes, please."

She poured one for herself and after a while she sat by his side, and they drank in a comfortable silence surrounded by the ever-increasing aroma of baked goods emanating from the oven.

A bell rang and Anna stood, flourishing her wand before a tray of freshly baked pumpkin pasties flew in front of them.

George reached out and Anna playfully slapped his hand back. "You'll burn yourself, let me use a chilling charm first." She flourished her wand once more and motioned George to now take one.

He happily obliged and took a bite of the pasties before his eyes went wide as saucers. He turned and looked at Anna stunned forcing himself to swallow before speaking.

"Anna how is this possible? These are my mother's pumpkin pasties."

Anna smiled. "She gave me the recipe."

"Wait. Hold it. How do you know my mother?" George asked now more stunned.

Anna took a sip of tea before answering. "Last December when your dad was at St. Mungo's, I was in charge of making his Blood-Replenishing potions, I would bring them down to them and would stay to chat a while every day."

She took another bite and swallowed before continuing. "Once your dad was released your mum made me a batch of pasties as a thank you gift. I loved them so much I asked her for the recipe."

George still gaped. "Anna, you don't understand, that recipe is one of her most prized possessions, she wouldn't even give it to us."

She swallowed another bite before answering. "I guess she liked me."

George seemed to be thinking really hard about something. "It's not just that. She told us she would only teach that recipe to our wives once we married, and I'm not even sure Fleur will get it."

Anna stifled a laugh.

George looked at her seriously. "Did she...Try to set you up with one of us?"

Anna considered this for a second. "Um...Come to think of it she was very insistent on me joining you on New Year, but sadly I was swamped."

"Bugger, it could be any of us then, well minus Percy, that's a relief." George said still deeply thinking.

"What? You think she was planning to play matchmaker with me?" Anna asked sceptically.

"Oh, I'm certain of it." George said completely serious.

"Well, your parents are lovely, I certainly could do worse than to marry a Weasley." Anna said with a small smile.

"Knowing mum, she'll probably try again. These are amazing by the way." George said eating another one.

"Do you want to know what the secret ingredient is?" Anna asked cheekily.

"What?" George asked with his mouth full.

"A drop of calming draught." Anna said with the widest smile.

"No!" George said stunned.

"I guess that's why she wouldn't tell you, she probably used these little wonders on you boys when you were too rowdy." She said spinning one in her fingers.

George swallowed his third one before exclaiming. "Now it all makes sense! I do feel more relaxed."

"You look more relaxed." Anna said looking at him tenderly.

"How did you whip them up so fast?" George asked genuinely surprised.

"It was easy, you guys have everything." Anna said smiling.

George scratched the back of his head embarrassed. "Yeah, well we do get a little crazy at the markets lately."

"You mean, Fred does."

"Yeah."

"Figures, he would crash and burn without you." Anna said sipping her tea.

"What do you mean?" George asked baffled.

"Come on George, you're the heart and brain of this operation, you've always have been. Fred is just the instigator." Anna said completely serious.

George suddenly found himself speechless.

"Don't get me wrong, I like Fred, in small doses. Dreamers are full of passion and creativity and can be really fun. But you can't live on only dreams, you need someone to make them a reality and that's what you do."

George felt an intensity in her eyes that made him blush. "I wouldn't say it like that..." He whispered.

"No, because you are modest. But I see you. Same thing happens with Ron, you both act like supporting characters in your own lives."

That rubbed him the wrong way. "Fred and I are equals!" He said slightly annoyed.

"No, you're not. You're better, and you hide it. You're smarter, you're nicer, and heck you're even a better Beater. Don't try to deny it!" She said it seriously but added a playful note at the end.

"That, I won't." George smiled.

"I bet you were the one who thought about reaching out to me. Weren't you?" Anna said leaning ever so slightly towards him.

"You are brilliant." George said slightly flirty.

Anna smiled warmly. "You see? Fred would have complimented me on my looks, but you know appealing to my brain is much more effective."

"He's not lying about your looks, you know?" He said blushing.

"I have a small confession to make George." Anna sat back on her chair and took a deep breath before continuing. "The truth is, I only REALLY wanted to say yes, when YOU would ask me out...But every time I kissed you, I could tell, you were holding back...You didn't want to upset Fred did you?"

George chuckled. "He sort of called dibs on you."

"Why would you ask me out then?" Anna said leaning back towards him once more.

George hesitated. "The truth... It's pathetic...I guess it was to make Fred feel better about asking you out as well, and because I knew you would never actually say yes."

Anna smiled knowingly. "I'm not your type, am I?"

George chuckled nervously.

"That's ok. Really. It's Angelina isn't it?" Anna asked slyly.

"What?!" George's voice cracked.

Anna looked far off. "You're gonna marry her one day."

"WHAT?!" George asked incredulously.

"Can I ask you something?" Anna said softly.

George could sense it was something big but trusted her blindly at this point. "Anything."

"You slept with her, didn't you?" Anna asked plainly.

George gulped audibly.

"She still thinks it was Fred, doesn't she?" Anna asked again almost emotionless.

"It wasn't like that..." George whispered.

"After the ball I transfigured myself and hid in the owlery for a couple of days, I did that sometimes when I wanted to be alone."

"Why did you want to be alone after the ball?". Asked George concerned.

"It's…that's…that's not important. Angelina and Katie came in giggling and started talking. Angelina told Katie that after the ball Fred told her to wait until her roommates were asleep, then to sneak into your dorm. He told her which bed was his and told her that even if he was already asleep to not say a word and just kiss him awake. She then told Katie, he was so surprised, like he didn't think she would actually show up. She told her they ended up sleeping together that night. She said he was sweet and considerate and the perfect gentleman. She was very happy."

George looked stunned.

"That was you, wasn't it? You didn't know she was looking for Fred." Anna asked.

"She didn't say a word." He whispered again. "I thought I was dreaming at first."

"Why didn't you ask her to the ball?" Anna asked baffled.

"I thought she only liked Fred..." George said honestly.

Anna threw her head up and spoke looking up. "Here's the kicker, she told Katie, the only reason she decided to sleep with Fred was because she wanted to get over you."

"And I'm not going to remember this!" George said grabbing his head in despair.

Anna hugged him and stroked his back soothingly. "Hey, hey, don't worry it's probably better you forget this, I mean you will marry her."

"I can't believe this..." He whispered.

"Why not? You deserve to be happy George." Anna said stroking his hair lovingly.

"Do I really?" Asked George almost rhetorically.

"Yes." She said earnestly hugging him tighter.

He hugged her back and she found herself blurting out something she didn't expect to reveal. "George, I like you." She said in a small voice.

"I like you too." George said casually.

She searched for his gaze and continued. "No, I mean I REALLY like you, much more than I like Fred. And I feel horrible because I know, even if I tried to cast this spell on Fred, it wouldn't take the way I know it will take on you."

George gulped audibly again, he began to grow acutely aware of their lack of clothing, and a blush started creeping from his chest all the way to his ears.

Anna caressed his face tenderly. "I know after this spell I won't feel anything left for you, and that's okay. I'll gladly give you all my love to protect you."

His voice was hoarse "...I don't think I can compete with Fred in the shagging department..."

Anna straddled him, hugging him tightly before whispering in his ear. "That's okay, it was never my plan to shag you...I need to make love to you…"

Anna felt dazed and confused, she slowly opened her eyes. She felt warmth beneath her and looked down, finding a bare George also with his eyes closed, breathing heavily. Her body reacted instinctively turning into a white barn owl and fleeing towards the bathroom, before her brain caught up with her remembering the spell was cast.

"Anna?" George called out concerned.

Anna turned back human and shut the door, abruptly. "Just give me a minute George!"

George was stunned, he knew the spell would take all her feelings for him, but he didn't expect her fleeing from him the second it was over.

Anna meanwhile was sitting on the loo, paler than usual, trying to regain her cool, breathing in and out slowly. This was the second time in her life feeling like a piece of her mind was ripped out of her and it was as disorienting as the first time, she could remember every single memory she had ever made with George, but it was stripped of feelings, there were no emotions tied to the images. She knew rationally that he was her friend, but she felt like she had just woken up from a drunken one-night stand with a total stranger.

George softly spoke from behind the door. "Your clothes, wand and fresh towels are just outside the door, I'll be downstairs in the shop whenever you are ready to talk."

She then heard the flat's door shut.

Anna let out a relieved sigh, she cracked the door and found her things quickly, pulling them inside the room. She showered again, while retracing her memories of the last 24 hours, recalling her plan to obliviate George once Fred came back.

As the water washed over her, she slowly recalled all her memories of Fred, they seemed so much more vivid now compared to the ones with George, she found herself smiling at the thought of his "dying man request" and couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at the briefness of their tryst.

She found George sitting on a desk looking over some numbers, she approached him apprehensively.

"Hey." She weakly said.

"Hey." He said slightly concerned, forgetting his papers.

"I'm sorry, for flying off like that, the spell kind of disorients me for a second." Anna said stiffly standing next to him at arm's length.

"That's perfectly understandable. Are you okay?" George said turning his body towards her.

"Yeah, I'm physically fine, it's my mind that feels…off." Anna said with crossed arms.

"Anything I can do to help?" George asked earnestly.

"Not really… But don't worry about me…Once Fred gets back, I have to obliviate you, we should probably leave everything in the flat as inconspicuous as possible."

George's eyes lowered to the desk and took a couple of seconds before replying. "Can I say goodbye to Fred?" His voice broke as he said it.

"Of course you can." Anna's voice was soft, and she reached to squeeze George's hand hesitantly. She knew an hour ago she would have hugged him fiercely, but it didn't feel natural anymore.

28. 2021 Fourth floor Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

"Ron came up for dinner to a very strange sight in his living room flat?"

Rose, Hugo and Anna had moved all the furniture away and it was now magically stacked on the far side of the flat while they were running Quidditch drills, they were currently doing speed laps from side to side of the flat, pots and pans where magically working in the kitchen and there were several potion cauldrons brewing on the countertops.

"Bloody hell what's all this then?" Ron asked perplexed taking off his work suit jacket.

"I win!" said Hugo beaming. Rose and Anna groaned but patted his back congratulating him.

"Ron, want to join us? The kids are showing me what they do in Quidditch practice to stay in shape." Anna said panting. She had been in great shape during her years with Charlie, hiking, climbing and flying every day, and was desperate to get in shape again; she couldn't afford being weak whenever this attack came, especially now that she had people she wanted to protect as well.

Ron groaned but then just turned to his room and said: "Fine, let me put on some trainers."

Rose and Hugo gasped they hadn't seen their dad exercise in years.

The four of them worked up an appetite and sat in the table, that had dishes coming towards them from the kitchen.

Ron was dramatically clutching his chest while Anna was running a diagnostic spell on Ron. "Seriously Ron you are just 41 years old! You are not having a heart attack!"

Hugo and Rose laughed.

They enjoyed an amazing meal of chicken, roasted vegetables, freshly made honey oatmeal rolls, and strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

Everyone ate happily, and afterwards the kids went to take showers while Anna and Ron rearranged the furniture and tidied up with their wands.

Anna suddenly filled a large vase with water, and then added a couple of drops to it that made the water turn a shimmery green colour, then she filled a small dish with water and another with the leftover raw chicken giblets and left everything on the counter near a window. Ron looked at the dishes and assumed it was another vision thing, he smiled.

"There's no point in exercising that much if you are gonna cook that well." Ron said teasingly, while Anna put away scarce leftovers.

"Actually, all the food was altered to increase muscle gain and reduce belly fat."

"No way!"

"I was in charge of cooking in the dragon camps, it's kind of my specialty now, very similar to potion making, and we really needed to be in shape there."

"I remember." said Ron recalling of all the times he felt jealous of Charlie and Anna being so ripped during family functions.

"I'm so out of shape right now…" Anna said with a sigh "Spending a year worried sick certainly aged me a decade." She said looking at her silvering hair dejectedly.

"You still look younger than me, even without your 'guns'" Ron said punching her lightly on the arm.

"I know you are trying to cheer me up but that is a lie, if you shaved your beard, you would look twelve."

"What's wrong with my beard?" He asked defensively.

"Nothing! That's the point! It makes you look distinguished; don't you dare touch it."

"Well, you look good as a silvery blonde, very Veela-like." Ron said pushing a strand of her hair to the back of her ear.

She took his hand and leaned her head towards it. "Thanks, little brother."

"Please stop calling me that." Ron asked pleadingly.

"Shower is free!" Rose said peeking out of her room, eyeing the both of them suspiciously in an extremely fluffy bathrobe.

"Great! My turn, you got the rest here?" She asked Ron heading towards her room.

"Yeah, have a nice shower." He said levitating Hugo's favourite couch to its usual place.

Suddenly there was a tap in the window, the Malfoys owl, was straining outside the window with a beautiful bouquet held together by twine. Ron waved his wand to open the window and let the creature in, it flew in directly to the counter dropping the flowers in the vase and perched itself to start happily snacking on the giblets.

"ROSIE." He called out smiling. "Scorpius sent you flowers!"

29. 1996 The Burrow

Even though he Scourgified himself and put on clean clothes, Fred knew he still needed a shower. He Apparated at the Burrow and decided to go through the front door, bolt his way through the house to the shower, and afterwards he'd greet everyone inside.

He opened the door and was halfway up the stairs before his mum's head peaked out from the kitchen. "Fred?"

"Hey mum I just came by to use the shower I'll be out in a minute and properly say hi." Fred said in a single breath not stopping his dash.

"FRED!" His mom yelled from the kitchen.

"Just a minute mum." Fred said reaching the door for the bathroom.

To his surprise the door opened on its own, another redhead emerging from the bathroom. "Still a disrespectful little shit I see."

"Charlie!" Fred smiled and gave his older brother a bone crushing hug. "I didn't know you were visiting."

"Holy shit! You stink of sex." Charlie whispered laughing; he knew full well his mom would kill him if she found out he was shagging out of wedlock.

"And you stink of dragon, are we done comparing?" Said Fred trying to wriggle through his broad-chested brother to the bathroom behind him.

Charlie pulled him forcefully by his coat to the corner. "Wait, wait, who is she?" Charlie whispered.

Fred had to lean down given his older brother was shorter than him. "I can't tell you mate; you might know her."

"All the more reason to tell me." Charlie whispered excitedly.

"I can't, but I reeeeally want to mate." Fred said, giving him a sincerely pained expression. He really, really, really wanted to brag.

"Details then." Charlie suggested.

Fred slid down the wall and sat on the floor with his head back against the wall and his eyes closed. Charlie sat right next to him. Fred sighed. "Gorgeous, blond, legs for days, tits and ass so perfect you could cry…" Fred gave a long sigh.

"Don't hold out on me now, little brother." Charlie goaded him on.

Fred still had his eyes closed, reliving every second. "Charlie, the sounds that came out of her mouth each time I touched her… the way she screamed every time she came."

Charlie's eyes went wide, and a blush crept up to his ears as only a Weasley could.

Fred opened his eyes and dramatically grabbed Charlie's face. "Five times Charlie, all five bloody times!" Fred whispered loudly.

"What did you do to her?!" Charlie asked impressed.

Fred pushed Charlie's face away dramatically and leaned on the wall again, eyes fixed somewhere far away. "Everything mate, every single sick twisted thing my mind conjured up she was game…"

"Bugger. Outperformed by my 18-year-old little brother, I really need to get laid." Charlie said, not able to hide the hint of pride from his words.

Fred turned his head and looked entirely seriously at his older brother. "Charlie, I can only wish that in your lifetime you get to experience the absolute joy this woman gave to me." He then stood up and headed to the bathroom.

"Freddy?" Charlie said seriously, suddenly grabbing Fred's wrist. "You're not shagging Bill's girl, are you?"

"WHAT!? NO! Fleur wishes she had all this." Fred said using his other hand to point to himself.

Charlie laughed and let go of Fred's wrist letting him finally into the bathroom.

"Prat."

30. 2021 Fourth floor Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Next weekend rolled by; Rose and Hugo where at Hermione's, and Ron came up after a long day at the shop. Saturday was always their busiest day, and summer their busiest season. The sun had already set and when he opened the door, he was welcomed by the smell of baked goods and potions which he was quickly starting to become extremely fond of.

"Long day huh?" Anna said stirring a small cauldron in the kitchen, she was already in her nightgown and her hair was up in a messy bun held by her ebony wand. Her eyes no longer had bags underneath them, and her cheekbones no longer poked out from her face, her cheeks were flushed from the heat of the cauldron, she looked a decade younger again.

"Yeah, sold a ton though." Ron said smiling taking off his jacket.

"That's good! Hungry?" She said taking her wand out of her hair and levitating 2 plates with stasis charms towards the kitchen island.

"Starving" Ron said heading towards the kitchen.

"Sit, I've been waiting." Anna said pulling a stool towards her and sitting across from his seat.

"You didn't need to do that." Ron said feeling slightly embarrassed for making her wait.

"It's for me, I hate eating alone, plus I've been snacking on these, want one?" Anna said levitating a plate of pumpkin pasties to the side of their plates.

"YES!" Ron said reaching for one before they started tucking into their meal.

"Beer?" Anna asked Ron levitating two from the fridge.

"Yes please" Ron said getting on from the air and opening it, he took a swig and saw the potions bubbling happily in the back of the kitchen. "What have you been up to today?"

"Oh!" Anna excitedly jumped up and headed towards the small cauldron. "I'm trying to get the eyebrow potion to look right. Look." She took a small sip from a teaspoon of potion.

Ron spit out his beer.

"They look like angry caterpillars, don't they?" Anna's eyebrows were now black and very bushy, they kind of reminded Ron of Victor Krum's eyebrows.

"How long are you going to look like that?" Ron asked slightly fearful.

"A week if I don't take the antidote. Maybe if you market it as a prank instead of a Wonderwitch product…" Anna said wiggling her eyebrows in an unsettling way.

Ron pondered that for a second. "Make them long enough to cover your eyes and I can sell it."

"Like this?" Anna said taking a spoonful making the eyebrows grow long enough to hide her eyes.

"No stop!" Ron said creeped out since the eyebrows were so thick now, they looked like spider legs to him.

"Maybe I can braid them" Anna said using her wand to braid the eyebrows.

"You're barmy! Take the antidote I beg of you." Ron pleaded laughing.

"Alright, alright." Anna said pulling out a tube of antidote taking a sip and returning to normal.

"Anna I've been meaning to ask you, is that the same hideous nightgown you've been wearing since school?"

"What's wrong with my nightgown?!"

"You look like an eighteenth-century ghost in it!"

"It was my mother's you arse!"

"I'm frankly surprised it hasn't disintegrated yet."

"I don't have a lot of clothes; I take care of my things."

"Was your dress…?"

"My mother's? Yes. Altered it a bit, it was too dated before, and since I had to learn to sew, cook and clean without magic from a young age, I thought I might as well make it my own."

"Now will you tell me about your family?"

"Do I have to?"

"If that gives me a clue of who is going to attack you, I think yeah, you have to."

"What did you do for fun during normal weekends, when you didn't have to babysit witches in trouble?"

"Not much really, went out drinking with Harry mostly, shouldn't really do that right now if I want to be sharp…and don't change the subject!"

"I promise I'll tell you, just not today please…"

"Do you have any games?"

"Wizard's chess"

"Really? I haven't played in years, can we play?"

"Sure"

Anna rubbed her eyes with her palms, after two very close games that Ron had ultimately won, he was feeling cocky about winning again.

Anna suddenly looked at him funny and said. "Knight to E5"

Ron felt panic that move ruined his whole strategy. "Wait, why are you moving it there?"

Anna laughed.

His eyes widened in realization. "Did you get a vision? NO FAIR! That's cheating!"

Anna was still laughing. "I can't help it! Please don't be mad."

He crossed his arms frowning. "I don't want to play anymore." Ron said in a fake indignant voice that reminded her of Percy.

Anna now laughed harder at his fake tantrum.

He finally cracked and laughed as well.

"How are the potions doing?" Ron asked having just woken up, he was in his undershirt and joggers.

It was bright and early on a Sunny Sunday morning and Anna was checking her potions still in her nightgown.

"The Polyjuice potion and the Veritaserum have another 2 weeks to go. The Felix Felicis is nowhere near done."

"Doesn't it take months to brew?"

"Yeah, but it would be very helpful, I'm also working out the kinks on that eyebrow potion." She took a sip of it again. "What do you think? Still too bushy?" Her eyebrows turned slightly darker and thicker but very defined.

"No, actually, they look good, a bit noticeable but not bad. I think that was the fashion a couple of years ago." They reminded him of a Muggle actress from a boring movie called Paper Towns, Rose and Hermione had dragged him to see like 5 or 6 years ago on premiere day because they had loved the book.

"Ok, just a drop less then. By the way who does George think is working on this?"

"I told him I was testing out a potioneer freelancer, if he likes your work, you can have a job with us permanently."

"I do appreciate the income."

"Do you have enough ingredients?"

"Yeah, but I might need to restock next week."

"You're not thinking on going to the market by yourself, are you?"

"I never go as myself remember?" She pointed to herself and changed her hair to a copper colour full of curls and added tons of freckles to her face.

"You can definitely pull off being a ginger." Ron said amazed, no one would doubt she was one of his family members.

"I sure hope so, my mum was ginger, alas I did not get the gorgeous hair colour." She said reverting herself back to her colour.

"I like your real hair colour, doesn't remind me of any relatives." Ron said a little to honestly.

Anna laughed and shot him with her wand turning him ash blond. "Oh nooo, I'm sorry, I thought it would be funny, but it just looks like you're pale and sad, please never go ash blonde."

Ron walked to the entrance mirror to see himself, he did look washed out. "I don't know…I may just keep it a while…" He said teasing her.

"No! Let me change it back." She said walking quickly towards him.

"No!" Ron said taking out his wand and putting up a shield.

"Ron! Stop shielding!" She said after her spell bounced off him.

He ran around the couch and took off the shield but ducked as she shot the spell.

"Bugger"

"Now the couch is ginger…" Anna said annoyed.

"Maybe with this hair colour and your hideous nightgown, I can pass as an 18th century ghost as well."

"Try it!" Anna started pulling off her nightgown.

"I was kidding!" Ron said panicking.

Anna had a white tank top that looked to be more like a long sports bra with white bike shorts underneath and her almost full potions holster was tied on her right thigh. It had at least 15 spots for tubular vials with black stoppers on top and one for her wand. "What? You thought I was naked under it?

"Are you sleeping with your potion holster on?" Ron asked surprised that in 2 weeks her legs where already looking stronger as well.

"Yeah, ready at all times, right?"

"I guess…Should I sleep with my wand holster?"

"Only if you want to"

"I mean you could go around the house in just that…no need for this…" Ron said pulling the nightgown up, frankly it looked like a perfectly acceptable outfit to go exercise.

"I didn't want my tits distracting you." Anna said putting her left hand on her hip.

"They don't distract me." Ron said but now couldn't help looking at her tits, they looked just as big as they did on her wedding day.

"Oh no?" Anna said easily hitting him making him ginger again.

"Hey! That's playing dirty."

"Loser! Gimme my gown back! I'll try to see if I can ungingerfy the couch."

"One of these days I'm gonna burn that thing..."

Next weekend

"Wanna play Quidditch?" Anna asked Ron excitedly, Rose had lent her her broom, before leaving for Hermione's place. She had already changed her appearance to the curly freckled ginger from before. She had on her white tank top and baggy joggers that hid her potions holster.

"You play?" Ron asked smiling at her enthusiasm, he'd thought she'd just wanted to fly around for a bit, but remembered she could turn into an owl to do that.

"Keeper." Anna said proudly.

"No way! I play Keeper too!" Ron said surprised.

"I think it's a youngest sibling thing." She said smiling.

"But where can we play?" Ron looked around, he was a grown up, he shouldn't suggest trying to play inside anymore.

"How about on the roof? If anyone sees us, they'll just think I'm a relative."

Ron liked the idea they just needed to put goal posts up there. "Penalty shots?"

"Best out of 17?" Anna suggested.

"You are on!" Ron said jumping up and getting his quidditch robes.

"You're wearing Quidditch robes?"

"You are too." He said handing Anna his old Quidditch robes.

"Why?" Anna asked confused it was unseasonably hot outside.

"Because that way you'll look like a former Gryffindor which is where all Weasley's end up." He didn't want to add it was mostly because he didn't want to be distracted by her tits.

Next weekend

It was bright and early, Anna came out of her room in her nightgown, surprised by the sight of Ron already plating breakfast.

"Ron, you made breakfast?"

"Well, I usually did the cooking before you got here, I'm not half bad at it." Ron said handing her a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Cheers." He said putting up his glass.

"Cheers." She said clinking it with his and taking a sip of it.

"How does it look?" Ron asked putting down his glass.

"Eggs look a little overcooked, but I don't want to hurt your feelings, what the fuck is happening? Mothefucker you dosed me with the Veritaserum!" Anna said outraged.

Ron smiled wickedly. "I'm sorry but I need to know about your family, and you wouldn't talk."

"My father is a death eater." She said angrily.

"WHAT?! Has he been caught?!"

"Yes, he's in Azkaban dying of Ventroposy, life without parole." Anna said without emotion.

"Bloody hell! What did he do?"

"I'm actually not certain what they charged him with, I can tell you he tried to kill me the summer before I returned to Hogwarts for my 7th year."

"What? The year we met?"

"Yes." She pulled back her hair and showed him the 3-inch scar right below her hairline on her left side. "'Exprimendum' right at my head."

"Why?!"

"Because I refused to help him climb back up the death eater ranks."

"He tried to recruit you?"

"Not exactly, he tried to marry me to a wealthy decrepit, now late, great-uncle, he wanted to increase the chances of getting a Seer for Voldemort, he figured incest would help. But he lost his temper when they called off the deal because I didn't pass their virginity test." She said shrugging her shoulders.

"What? They still do that?" Ron asked surprised.

"Some purebloods do. And some psychos." Anna said taking a bite of her eggs.

"Wait, didn't he know you were a Seer?"

"No." She said cutting up her breakfast, it was actually pretty good and she was annoyed it was getting cold.

"How?"

"Francis, my oldest brother, lied and told him I failed the "Seer test" which was essentially hours of torture to get a vision to appear. Francis told me he needed to cut me up, so dad wouldn't really hurt me, he was very careful and gave me shallow cuts all over with a shaving blade, he then cut his arm badly to soak my dress and make it look like I had bled way more than I really had. I was 4, he was 11. Dad bought it, but he was furious I failed the test and gave me a beating for it." She took a bite of sausage to help push the bile down from the memory.

"That son of a bitch…" Ron was feeling worst and worst for dosing her.

She swallowed hard reached for his glass and took a sip to push everything down. "After that mum died and I was officially in charge of the housework. The first time I got a vision; I was already in Hogwarts. Francis and Auggie, my other brother, immediately started the process of turning me into an Animagus to protect me."

"Tell me you at least took a limb or something from that bastard before you ran away."

She scowled. "I can't fight back, as children he made us make Unbreakable Vows to not attack anybody with the mark. I just flew away bleeding."

"I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I already knew it would happen like that. My friend Alex had kept my trunk for me during the summer break, she took me in before school that summer. The dress and this nightgown where there, in the trunk."

"I don't think I know her." Ron said trying to remember.

"You wouldn't, she and her family were killed during the war, she was Muggleborn."

"You think your father killed them?"

"I do."

"Did you tell Charlie about all this?

"Of course, it was perfect really, we were always out of reach, always moving, surrounded by dragons, I think dad was caught about 10 years ago, but I never really stopped running or hiding..."

"Is that why you were warded in St. Mungo's?"

"Yes."

"You didn't want to be found…I thought you just didn't want to be found by me…"

"Part of me didn't want you to find me." Anna said in a small voice.

"Why?" Ron asked hurt.

"Because I didn't trust myself around you, I would have casted the Warrior's Farewell on you, you were a death magnet back then. Do you know you spent the better part of an hour magically connected to my heart and lungs, while I uncursed yours? I had to pump and breathe for the both of us! I was exhausted…"

Ron winced at the memory. "Was that the time I said, 'Not you again' when I woke up?

"Yes, you ungrateful bastard! You broke my heart saying that!" Anna said throwing one of her pieces of toast at him.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know!" Ron said genuinely sorry.

Anna looked on the verge of tears. "You think I would've given that much effort if I'd already given up all my love for you on a one-shot shield? I say it worked out in your favour that you couldn't find me."

Ron wanted to keep asking her about this but the Veritaserum only lasted minutes, he needed to focus. "Anna, do you have any idea who could be after you?"

"No, I don't even know if I'll survive." Anna said with her eyes watering.

"What?"

She wiped her face and continued. "In the vision I just saw the pink flash from the spell's activation, I never saw myself afterwards."

"Did you see or hear anything else?"

She wiped her nose with her napkin. "Just a distorted scream after the flash, I couldn't even tell you if it was my own scream or someone else's…I didn't even tell Charlie that." She said throwing the napkin at him crossed.

He couldn't help to ask. "You really don't feel anything for Charlie anymore?

"No, I guess that's what losing your memory must feel like, but the weird thing is that it still hurts to think of Fred."

"You really don't remember your relationship with Fred?"

"No, I just remember him from school."

"You think maybe you really loved him? And since he didn't erase all your memories of him, it bleeds through?"

"Or he was really shitty at obliviating." She said smiling.

"I think the Veritaserum wore off…tell me a lie to make sure…"

"I hate you."

"I hope that's a lie"

"It is, but I am mad, you wasted my Veritaserum, what am I supposed to do with a Pumpkiny Veritaserum?"

Ron grabbed the glass and downed half of it in a gulp.

"Get even."

Anna was shocked.

"Ask me something! This thing doesn't last very long."

There was only one question she really wanted to ask. "Are you really over Hermione?"

"Pfff…No…of course not, I wasn't the one who asked for the divorce, I don't think I can ever be over her, I've loved her for 30 years, I don't think anything but that barmy spell of yours could erase that."

"Why did she ask for the divorce then?"

"She said she didn't love me like that anymore, and that she wasn't happy…I'm actually not really sure she ever loved me like that to be honest…our sex life was terrible…"

"What?"

"My parents used to say Weasley swimmers where magically potent, that no potion or contraception spell worked…Hermione was terrified about that, so we waited until after the war. Now I know that was bollocks since we've all had a reasonable amount of kids, and you didn't even have any, I thought it was probably a way of scaring us into waiting until marriage."

"Fucking diabolical." Anna was impressed with Molly's ruthlessness.

"Our first times were great, or at least I thought they were, we used muggle condoms, Mionee used to sneak into my room that summer and we would go about it quick and hard and fall asleep in each other's arms…But then she refused the Auror position, we broke up, she left for Hogwarts, and Malfoy happened." His face darkened. "After the prick got married, she was crushed, took me years to win her back, and she wouldn't let me touch her until after the wedding." He gave a bitter smile. "I overdrank in my wedding after I saw you and Charlie leave early together…"

"Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry…I didn't know you were being celibate! Oh no, we were rubbing it in your face..."

"It was a horrible wedding night, poor Hermione…"

Anna was feeling terrible. "But it got better afterwards right?"

"Not really…I could never make her cum, and she did get pregnant with Rose almost right after the wedding, the potion didn't work. After Rosie was born, we went back to condoms, but she was always tired. A year later we started planning for Hugo because we wanted Rosie to have a sibling, but there was nothing sexy about it, it was all 'ovulation windows' and 'preserving sperm quality', after Hugo I was lucky if we had sex maybe once a month. I got extremely used to just taking care of myself in the shower."

"Did you ever cheat on her?"

"Of course not! I've only ever been with her, I thought about it…got propositioned a bunch of times…in 5th year I was tired of sneaking around with her, so I tried to make her jealous. I thought maybe if she saw that someone else wasn't embarrassed to be formally seen with me, she'd finally agree to be my girlfriend, so I dated Lavander Brown." He grimaced. "Totally backfired, that set me back passed square one. I knew right then she would immediately dump my ass if I cheated."

"Did you guys ever talk about your problems?"

"We went to muggle marriage counselling, which was awkward since we couldn't talk about magic, we would talk about wanting different things in life, that was the first time she told me she wanted to be Minister, I told her I would absolutely support her, even when I knew that meant I would practically never see her anymore, I told her I would take care of the kids, and the house, anything to make her happy." He smiled bitterly. "After the whole time-turner, Delphini Riddle thing, when we finally got home, she basically jumped me, I thought we were finally getting some life back into our marriage. It was amazing until I realized she wasn't really looking at me…"

"You don't think…?"

"…I really fear she was thinking about Malfoy the whole time..." Tears were streaming down his eyes as he looked at the counter looking slightly unhinged.

Anna couldn't take it anymore she morphed into an owl and flew over the kitchen Island, unfolding into herself on his side, she pulled him into a tight hug. "STOP! Please just stop! I don't want to hear anymore! I forgive you!" She took the Veritaserum laced juice glass and downed the rest of it in front of him.

Ron's eyes went wide as saucers. "What are you doing?!"

Anna squared off her shoulders and took his face between her hands forcing him to look her in the eyes. "You are going to shut up and you are going to listen to me! You need to know that what I say is the truth." She took a deep breath. "It is not your fault your wife was in love with someone else! You are a great man, an amazing friend, a fantastic brother, and a wonderful dad. You are handsome, brave, reckless even, loyal, fun to be around, unusually good at wizard chest, and a great keeper for your age. Any woman would be lucky to have you! Even if you suck at sex…which I highly doubt by the way…" She let his face go and took a small step back biting her thumb's nail nervously. "What is it?" She looked him up and down. "Are you a quick shot?"

"Yeah." Ron said morosely putting his hands in his pockets.

Her faced lighted up and she gave a jump back, gesticulating wildly with her hands. "Easy! There's a potion for that!"

"There is? I couldn't find anything!" Ron asked surprised.

She was walking back slowly as she spoke. "Yeah…it's because it's more recreational than medical, you need to mix a couple of potions together, and it's not so much to last longer as it is for remaining hard for a couple of hours, and not getting sleepy after multiple ejaculations…"

His jaw fell.

"…I'll brew you some for when you get back out into the dating pool." She turned around and started walking quickly towards her room.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked baffled.

"I'm flying away before either of us say something we can't take back!" She said before she turned into an owl and flew towards her balcony window.

"COWARD!" Ron yelled at her smiling. He was regretting not telling her about his issue before, that potion sounded awesome.

Another weekend Ron and Anna were checking the store's inventory; Ron saw they were running low on love potions.

"Did I ever tell you I once got dosed with the joke shops Amortentia?" Ron asked smiling at the memory.

"Really? Serves you right for dosing me with Veritaserum." Anna said still annoyed with him about it.

"I was downright proper with that Veritaserum!" Ron said outraged. "I could have really embarrassed you if I wanted."

"I don't embarrass easily Ron…Did they embarrass you with the Amortentia?"

"Yes, specially because it wasn't even meant for me it was for Harry; Romilda Vane fancied him."

"Did she snog you?" Anna asked trying to be nonchalant about it.

"No." Ron laughed. "Harry took me to Professor Slughorn and I ended up almost dying from a poisoned bottle Malfoy had sent for Dumbledore."

"WHAT?!"

"Harry saved me, he gave me a bezoar." Ron said casually like that explained everything.

"I feel like there are missing steps in the middle of that…" Anna never seemed to get used to how close to death he was always in his stories.

"It's not important, Voldemort told Malfoy to kill Dumbledore but was really half-assing it because he didn't really want to do it." Ron saw an escaped pigmy puff running around the floor and caught it.

"Okay."

"I was just in the crossfire…" Ron remembered the Pigmy puff tattoo rumour. "I could have asked you if you've ever picture me naked."

Anna scoffed. "I've seen you naked multiple times Ron."

"What?! When?!" Ron asked surprised.

"At St. Mungo's, I actually had to unstick your bloody penis from your thigh and move it out of the way to be able to heal that massive gash you got on your inner thigh during your Auror training, one centimetre higher and you would have been circumcised." Anna said gravely.

"You're not supposed to look!" Ron said appalled.

"I tried not to! But it was there!" Anna took a beat to think. "Now that I think about it, between sneaking into the boy's dorm room at Hogwarts and the Hospital... I've unintentionally seen every Weasley penis." She said grimacing a bit.

"Oh yeah? Who's bigger?" Ron said smugly liking his odds.

"Your dad's." Anna said laughing at his face.

Ron threw the pigmy puff at her face, making her cackle harder.

31. 1996 The Burrow

After a shower and a change of clothes, Fred emerged from the bathroom, said a proper hello to his mother and spent some time catching up with his parents and Charlie.

He looked at the clock and said his goodbyes, having promised Anna he'd return 2 hrs later to help her out with the amnesia plan.

He headed outside to Apparate when he heard something behind him.

"Freddy!" Charlie yelled from the door. "Come here."

Fred walked back to his brothers' side.

Charlie closed the door and leaned back on it before smirking and asking. "So, when's the wedding?"

Fred raked his brain for a bit. "Heck if I remember mate, sometime next year I think, ask Bill."

"No, you git, yours with your mystery girl." Charlie said half-teasing.

"WHAT?! Charlie, it was a bleeding miracle she shagged me. Hell ain't freezing over twice mate." Fred said in a self-deprecating tone.

"That's not the Freddy I know. You obviously fancy this girl. And if half of what you told me is true, I reckon that girl is barking mad not to fall head over heels for you." Charlie said thoughtfully.

Fred's face fell. "It's complicated mate."

"Well, uncomplicate it then." Charlie said simply.

"But..." Fred began.

"But nothing, listen, if you want to be with this girl, be with this girl. Heck we only get one life Freddy." Charlie said seriously.

Fred just gaped like a fish.

"Mull it over little brother, I may not have Bill's luck with witches, but I know a thing or two about missed opportunities." Charlie said morosely.

Fred pulled Charlie into a bone crushing hug; he didn't know if this would be the last time seeing him. "Love you mate."

"Aw, love you too Freddy. See you at Christmas." Charlie said happily.

"...I hope."

32. 1996 Fourth floor Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Fred apparated back in the store, he didn't want to walk into anything he couldn't unsee.

He stood outside his own flat's door and knocked.

After a beat Anna answered, she quickly stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

She once again wore yesterday's clothes, but her hair smelled of his shampoo. Fred could see her expression was serious and thoughtful. She looked at him for a second before speaking.

"I'll keep myself busy downstairs so you two can talk in private." She said, and stepped to his side walking quickly, before his hand surrounded her wrist.

"Anna, wait." Fred said nervously.

She turned and saw his expression which made her step closer to him concerned. "What's wrong?"

He suddenly pulled her into him and crashed his lips fervently against hers. Anna gasped allowing his tongue entrance and making her knees weak. She kissed him back just as passionately, her hands in his hair pulling him towards her just as strongly as his were.

He broke the kiss slowly admiring her face as he did.

"Anna, I want to be with you." Fred said very seriously.

"Fred! You promised!" Anna said almost in a whine.

"I vowed to obliviate you, act normal, and not tell a soul I'm dying. And I plan to keep those promises. But you never actually saw when I obliviate you, did you?" He asked, slightly smirking.

Anna shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"That's because from now until the day they tell me to go to Hogwarts to battle, I decided you'll be my secret girlfriend." He said smiling broadly.

"Do I get any say in this?" Anna asked, arching her brow.

"Say yes?" He asked mischievously.

"So, let me get this straight, not only will you carry the secret of your death. But you'll sneak around, apparate, shag me within an inch of my life whenever you want, without telling a soul; for however long it takes for this war to escalate to a final battle in Hogwarts upon which day you'll just quickly apparate at my place before going to your death and obliviate all memories of all this ever happening until I can only recall you two as those mildly annoying twins that used to follow me at school?" She said looking slightly aggravated.

"Pretty much, yes." Fred said, almost chuckling at the ludicrous sound of it all.

"Okay, I can live with that." Anna deadpanned.

"Seriously?!" Fred's asked incredulously.

"Hey, healer training is stressful, I could use a little fun in my life." Anna said wrapping her arms around his neck and burying both her hands in his hair.

"You really like the red hair, don't you?" Fred said cockily.

"Merlin help me, I really do." Anna said almost painfully and kissed him.

33. 2021 Fourth floor Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Summer passed in a blink, Anna was working secretly as Research and Development of new products from the flat, Ron, Rose, Hugo and Anna would train every day before dinner. Hugo got a magically enlarged tent from his mum that was now permanently placed in the living room and was officially his room, and Anna and Rose grew closer together. She got Rose on the potion and would cover for her when she flooed to Malfoy Manor to secretly spend the night, sneaking back in during the morning.

The Thursday night before the end of summer finally came, the kids where already packed and they were spending their last weekend with Hermione before heading to Hogwarts.

"I'm going to miss you kid. I hope you have an awesome final year."

"Auntie Anna, are you in love with my dad?"

"Muffliato! What?! Why would you ask that Rosie?"

"I think my dad is in love with you."

"Why would you think that?"

"He got in shape for you, he's always worried sick when you aren't home and when you're here he looks happy."

"Oh no, Rosie that's only because I'm in hiding remember? He's back in his old Auror mode."

"About that…I may have forgotten to tell Scorpius not to tell his dad you live here…"

"YOU WHAT?!"

34. 2021 Malfoy Manor

It was the Friday prior to the children's return to Hogwarts, Hermione stomped through the Floo, in a burgundy pantsuit and blazer, Daily prophet in hand, reading out the headline in a screaming voice. "RONALD WEASLEY MINISTER OF MAGIC'S HUSBAND FOUND SHACKED UP WITH HIS FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW!"

She threw the prophet towards the feet of her impeccably dressed campaign manager who was currently sipping on a cup of tea sitting comfortably in the chair of his parlour, reading a letter.

"MALFOY! WHAT IS THIS!?" Hermione yelled pointing at the paper.

"Hermione, welcome! This is our ticket to victory! Shall I get the bubbly?" He said with a wide smile putting down his cup and letter in the table next to him and standing up showing her the way.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO MAKE UP ANY LIES!"

"And I didn't. This is all real!" He said pointing to the paper on the floor.

"WHAT?!"

"Your dear still-technically-husband has been living together with Charles Weasley's ex-wife in that flat a top the joke shop for the last almost two months."

"With Anna?!"

"Yes, that is her name."

"They're divorced?!"

"Yes, I verified it myself with the Romanian registry."

"For two months?"

"Yes, the entire summer."

"With my kids?"

"Yes, correct."

"And they didn't tell me?" Hermione said clearly hurt.

"…no…they didn't…"

Hermione turned violently towards the floo, took some powder, threw it, and said. "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes 4th floor."

"I don't think I have clearance for…" To Draco's surprise the floo connected to a girly bedroom. "I stand corrected." He said wincing a bit at the implication.

Hermione gave him a murderous look.

"I'll talk to Scorpius."

Hermione grabbed him by the collar and pulled him inside the room with two twin beds and an open door.

"Hermione?! Ferret?!" Ron said standing in his undershirt and joggers, wand drawn as if prepared for battle. He was standing in front of a table with a vast breakfast spread, where Rose and Hugo where still in their pyjamas sitting, red hair wild full of cowlicks, mouths full of food. Anna had turned around, wand in hand, eyes wide still in her Ebeneezer Scrooge nightgown. The last two months had worked wonders, and the colour had returned to her demeanour, but her hair was still much lighter than before. She forgot she was pouring tea and overflowed the cup.

"Auntie Anna!" Hugo said, warning her, so she quickly put down the kettle with her wand and vanished the spill.

Hermione was shocked, Ron looked better than he had in decades! Arms toned, shoulders wide, no belly, even his splinching scars looked dashing.

Draco was looking at the silver in Anna's hair. "Bugger! I was really hoping she was younger! The public outrage won't be the same knowing she's age appropriate."

Hermione's hair started to puff up, little sparks were dancing on top of it menacingly.

"Oh no…" Ron, Rose, Hugo and Draco said in unison.

Anna hadn't notice since she was currently flying two more chairs in to accommodate them. "Hermione, Draco, would you like to join us for breakfast? I made more than enough for all…" She suddenly yelped as a shield charm blocked a curse heading straight towards her, making her drop the chairs with a loud crash. Ron had cast it just in time before Hermione's curse hit her. He jumped to stand in front of her facing Hermione, he pushed Anna behind him protectively.

"MUM STOP!" Rose and Hugo said in unison.

"Mionee, this isn't what it looks like!" Ron said with his hands up like he was trying to calm down a wild animal.

Hermione stomped forward poking her finger to his chest accusingly: "I knew it! All these years! How can I be so stupid?! She was always there like a consolation prize!" Draco ran behind her holding her shoulders for support or more like to restrain her.

"You don't know what you are talking about!" Ron said furiously.

"Mionee…I've never…we've never been anything…" Anna said softly poking out from behind Ron.

"Mum please don't." Hugo said holding his mum's blazer pleadingly.

"It wasn't enough for you to steal my husband! You had to steal my children as well?!"

"Mum, she isn't with dad. She's in hiding!" Rose said grabbing Hermione's wand arm desperately trying to reason with her mum.

They heard the roar of the fireplace and Ron grabbed Hermione's hand quickly. "Did you leave the floo open?!"

Instantly everything went black. Peruvian instant darkness powder. The six instinctively huddled up, holding each other.

"Hugo's tent!" Ron said pulling all of them towards it.

They all burst inside together and closed the flaps, Ron, Hermione, Draco and Anna began immediately chanting protection wards at the entrance.

"Who the fuck is outside?!" Draco asked.

"I don't know!" Anna said terrified.

"You let her stay with our children knowing she was being hunted down!?"

"WE WERE PERFECTLY SAFE UNTIL YOU BARGED IN, LEAVING THE FLOO OPEN!" Ron screamed.

"YOUR FLOO WAS THE ONE CONNECTED TO THE MALFOY MANOR!" Hermione replied equally as loud.

Ron stopped realization dawning on him, he turned to his daughter. "…Rosie?"

"I'm sorry!" Rose said crying.

Anna hugged her niece. "Don't get angry with her, I gave her permission!"

"WHAT?!" Ron, Hermione and Draco yelled.

"What's happening?" Hugo asked as the place started shrinking.

"Oh no! They're putting us away! They're moving the tent with us inside!"

"They'll crush us."

Hermione looked around. Hugo's school trunk was there already packed. "The trunk!" She yelled casting and unbreakable charm on it then waved her wand making all the contents fly out. A dirty magazine flew out from the very bottom falling to Rose's feet.

"Ew, Hugo!"

The room shrank and shrank more until the six of them were pushed towards the trunk.

Hermione was completely concentrated as she cast an illegal extension charm on the trunk. "Everyone, jump in." One by one the six of them jumped inside what looked like a dungeon cell, and the tent collapse outside them, closing the trunk.

They felt as if something picked them up and apparated somewhere else leaving them the with that typical side along apparition queasiness.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Hugo said looking a little green.

"Here kiddo, might as well be on high alert right now." Anna pulled up her nightgown revealing her potion med kid thigh holster, she pulled a Pepper up potion tube and gave it to Hugo, who downed it in one go.

Draco's eyes went wide recognizing some of the liquids in those vials as extremely tricky potions. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Anna Weasley…I mean Holmes, healer."

"How are we getting out of this one, Holmes?" Hermione asked bitingly.

"I don't know Minister! The only thing I know for certain is that I will be mortally wounded. Happy?!"

"Load of hogwash…" Hermione said under her breath.

"OH, QUIT THE HOSTILITY HERMIONE! WE'VE NEVER SHAGGED, WE'VE NEVER KISSED, UNLIKE YOU TWO!" He said pointing to Hermione and Draco making them roll their eyes.

"What?!" Hugo asked stunned, Rose pulled him towards her and whispered in his ear. "I'll tell you later."

"How did they find us? Nobody knew you were there." Ron asked.

"Actually, I had it printed in today's prophet…the whole wizarding world probably knew she was there by now." Draco said feeling a tad guilty.

"What?" Ron asked murderously.

Anna turned towards Rose giving her side eye.

"Scorpius told me, and I thought it would boost Hermione's sympathy votes for the re-election."

Ron hurdled towards Draco to punch him, and both Anna and Hermione stopped him by grabbing him by each arm.

"No point in that, we need to be ready." Anna said trying to calm Ron down.

"Did you steal that Graphorn antidote you carry from a scary trafficker by any chance?" Draco asked trying to figure out who or what was attacking them.

"No, I captured it and harvest it myself, thank you very much, I've had to use it on this one, once before." Anna said still holding Ron almost without thinking.

"YOU WASTED GRAPHORN ANTIDOTE ON THE WEASEL!?" Draco said genuinely outraged at someone using such a rare ingredient.

Anna was about done with this guy, so she let go of Ron's left arm suddenly.

Ron slapped Draco with his left hand.

"RONALD!" Hermione scolded him still holding to his right arm and glaring at Anna who was giving Ron's left fist a fist bump.

"It's fine…I deserve that." Draco said rubbing his cheek.

"We've seemed to stop moving."

They heard rustling in the outside. "Someone is opening the tent again."

Everyone kept quiet, waiting for the rustling to stop.

Suddenly crashing sounds began around them, whoever was outside was trashing the place looking for them.

Anna whispered to the group; "I have an idea."

Their kidnapper finally saw the trunk, he readied a Shield charm as he opened the lid rapidly.

Nothing came out, he peaked in with the shield ready but jumped back as he saw a snowy white barn owl fly out of the trunk making him knock it over and yelled as the bird flew out of the tent panicked, he peaked in the trunk seeing nothing and ran to see where the owl had headed to.

"Is the coast clear?" A disembodied voice said, before the glamour making the chest look empty inside was lifted and the 5 remaining climbed out of the trunk.

"It was just an old man." Draco said confused once outside the trunk.

"Maybe there are more outside the tent 'Homenum Revelio'" Hermione said checking. "It's just us." She informed the rest.

"Guys are you okay?" Anna asked running into the tent panting.

Ron, Draco, and Hermione pointed at her startled but then lowered their wands relaxing. "Yeah"

"I'm so sorry, he dissaparated." Anna said walking towards Ron who gave her back her wand.

The six emerged from the tent to find they were in the parlour of a dilapidated Manor that looked like it once had been opulent, but had been left to rot, and now seemed to be falling apart.

"Where are we?" Hugo asked.

"Holmes Hall." Anna said looking sickly pale.

"Who was that?" Asked Ron already suspecting the answer.

"My father…"

"Why is your father attacking us?" Draco asked perplexed.

"I don't know, but he's a Death eater." Anna said feeling nauseous.

"You never heard of him?" Ron asked Draco.

"I was a kid! If they weren't rich or in the highest ranks I didn't know them." Draco explained.

"We weren't rich, my grandfather lost everything during the Grindewald era, and my dad was disgraced by Voldemort for not producing a Seer."

"I thought all remaining death eaters were in Azkaban." Rose said naively.

"He was! I sent a letter a year ago, he had life without parole." Anna said confused.

"Oh no, is he terminal?" Asked Draco almost wincing.

"Yes! What does that have to…"

"The Dignified Death Program…" Hermione said gasping.

"The what?" Ron asked.

"One of the first thing the purebloods asked for to be appeased after the time-turner debacle was to release the oldest prisoners who were in hospice care from Azkaban, so they could spend their last days at home with their families." Hermione explained.

Draco shook his head. "But they were all supposed to be under house arrest, how is he…?"

"It's untraceable!" Anna said. "The house is unplottable and untraceable, the house arrest spell is easily tricked when the house is unplottable AND untraceable, since the house could technically be anywhere at any time, you didn't check that?! Lots of death eater houses are untraceable!"

"MALFOY!" Hermione barked at Draco.

Draco tried defending himself. "Malfoy manor has never been untraceable, unplottable yes, but not untraceable."

"How may terminally ill death eaters did you release?!" Ron asked fearing the answer.

"37, most where from the Grindewald era, all with incurable deadly non-contagious diseases." Draco said paler than usual.

"We have to get out of here and track them down, where's the floo?" Ron asked walking forward.

"There's no floo, no exit, no entrance, my dad is the only secret keeper of this house, you can only enter or leave with him." Anna explained.

"How did you get out?" Ron asked.

"As an owl, he doesn't know I'm an Animagus."

"Can you get out and bring help." Hugo asked hopeful.

"No, if I leave, I cannot find it or enter again, I wouldn't be able to send help."

"So were stuck here." Draco said annoyed.

"There is another way to get out, but sadly I cannot help with it." Anna said quickly.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"You can kill him."

"DONE!" Ron and Draco said in unison grimacing at the fact that for the first time in their lives they were agreeing on something.

"No, you cannot!" Said Hermione emphatically. "We cannot be judge, jury and executioners"

"Hermione, he's a convicted death eater! That just kidnapped the Minister of Magic and her entire family! I think this is justified!" Draco said ardently.

"Draco you can't, you've never killed anybody in your life!"

"Hermione, that's not something I'm very proud about." He said caressing her arm at the place her Mudblood scar was located.

"I have. I'll do it! You two stay in the tent and protect the children. Anna and I will keep an eye out for when he comes back." Ron said emphatically.

Anna needed them to understand the severity of her condition. "All you guys should know something about me. As a child I was made to do and Unbreakable Vow that I cannot directly attack anyone with a dark mark."

Hermione seem triggered by the news. "That's it! I am outlawing placing Unbreakable Vows on children, purebloods be damned!"

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose annoyed. "This re-election is looking grimmer and grimmer by the second."

"You just stick to me and shield me if it gets to a battle, I assume he's looking for you, Hermione and the kids were probably only collateral damage in this kidnapping." Ron said taking Anna's hand reassuringly. "Hermione ward the tent, stay inside, you and Draco protect the children, send me a Patronus if he tries to breech you." Ron said pulling Anna further into her ancestral home.

35. 2021 Holmes Hall

Ron and Anna were riffling through Holmes senior's study.

"What should I be looking for?" Anna asked.

"Anything that you don't recognize from when you lived here, letters, addresses, notes, I'm looking for anything that looks recent, that could help us place were the other death eaters may be or are planning on meeting." Ron said looking through the rubbish bin.

Anna caught a movement in the reflection of a tarnished goblet.

She cast a shield just in time to block a curse and to see her father emerging from the shadows.

"Hello daughter."

Alexander Auguste Holmes was a wizard well into his 70s, his hair was completely white, impeccably slicked back in a vintage style that reminded Ron of how Draco used to use it during his first school years, his eyes had aging grey rings to them but in the centre was Anna's same bright aquamarine colour, he had a crooked smile that looked more like a snarl and 2 rows of yellow teeth. He looked gaunt given his old-fashioned robes seemed to hang off him, but he seemed still sturdy enough to look menacing.

He blasted spell after spell relentlessly towards the pair. Ron was duelling valiantly but he was obviously rusty. Anna could only shield and move furniture to be in the way but couldn't actually attack her father head on because of the Vow. Both Ron and Anna now sported bruises and gashes on several body parts.

"Not bad, blood traitor, but I trained with the Dark Lord."

From the hallway stepped in Draco wand raised in front of him, Anna and Ron smiled at the welcomed help.

"Incarcerous" yelled Draco, but to their horror he hit Ron square in the chest. Ropes appeared from his feet up towards his chest rolling him up like a cocoon.

"No!" Anna yelled.

She shielded him from a Diffindo headed at his throat, before Draco Expelliarmused their wands and her dad put her in a leg lock curse making her fall to the floor painfully.

"I still don't know how you escaped the night you did but I'll take my precautions this time." Holmes senior said menacingly.

"MALFOY, PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT!" Anna pleaded squirming pathetically; he was obviously Imperioused.

"YOU STUPID FERRET! WHERE ARE HERMIONE AND THE CHILDREN!?" Ron screamed.

"Little Draco here, just locked them down in the dungeon for me." Holmes senior said caressing Draco's cheek.

Anna took that moment to throw the diluted Bundimun Secretion she had gotten from her holster, while squirming, onto Ron's back ropes, feigning having trouble trying to flip herself to sit on her knees.

Draco handed Holmes senior Hermione's wand, Holmes chuckled and pocket it smugly.

"You should her seen her face; she never even saw it coming." Holmes senior smirked.

"How are you still alive? They told me you were in the late stages of Ventroposy in Azkaban a year ago." Anna asked trying to buy time for the acid to eat through the ropes.

"Unicorn blood." Holmes senior smiled with his yellowed teeth. "The Dark Lord told all his faithful servants his secrets, I can assure you none of us will be dying anytime soon."

Ron winced as he felt the acid start to seep through and understood what Anna had done, he continued fighting against the hold of the ropes.

"Quite a little upgrade to my plan I must say, I had only planned on offering a Seer to the Augurey to procure my rank by her side, but to have the Minister Imperioused to do our bidding, I will be treated like a god in our reunion!" He boisterously laughed. "We will gladly call off the need for that re-election now, and once the Augurey is released to guide us once more. We'll rise up as kings!"

"I am not a Seer!" Anna lied as she was used to around him.

"I'm not talking about you, hag! You're a disgrace! Apparently marrying a blood traitor wasn't enough for you. I thought well, at least my grandchildren will be Purebloods, so I bided my time. Then you disgrace me further by not having children and getting a muggle divorce. Now everyone knows you are whoring yourself out to the Prime Minister's husband here." He said pointing to Ron.

"BASTARD!" Ron yelled still trying to break free.

"Minister of Magic…what a joke, a Mudblood with her Mudblood lover boy toy." He said pointing at Draco.

Anna was cursing herself for diluting the Bundimun so much.

"I should thank them both really, a couple of my friends will be able to visit now."

Ron barely felt a sliver of wiggle room.

"What are you 44? 45 years old? With the right potions you could still push out a couple of heirs. My friends prefer younger witches but after so long in Azkaban I don't think they'll mind impregnating you like the cow you are…Specially if I offer up that young redhead in the dungeon as a thank you…after sampling her myself of course..." He said chuckling.

"YOU SICK BASTARD! IF YOU OR ANY OF YOUR KIND SO MUCH AS TOUCH A HAIR ON THEIR HEADS, I'LL END YOU!" Ron said screaming, he could finally feel the ropes weakening.

Holmes circled between an immobilized Ron and Anna, caressing his wand along Ron's neck.

"Do they know you can't do anything to stop us? Do they know you can't so much as spit in our direction?" Holmes senior laughed.

She had to get him to turn his back to Ron. "What's the matter father, still sore you couldn't give Voldemort a Seer? That you knew mum wouldn't resist another pregnancy, but you made her have me anyway effectively killing her?" She laughed at him. "And for no good reason."

He slapped her across the face. "You really think you were the reason for her death? She lost the will to live after we lost your sisters."

"My what?!"

"Do you really think we'd spend 5 years between Auguste and you without trying to have more Seers? Your sisters were foolish and did not grasp the seriousness of the Vow, they defied me when I was to test you for the ability, and they dropped dead on the spot. Your mother took seriously ill afterwards so I took her to St. Mungo's, that's why Francis gave you the test only for you to be an astronomical failure."

"YOU MONSTER!" Ron screamed fighting the ropes and the pain.

"I don't remember them…"

"You were 4, what are you going to remember?!"

"WHAT WERE THEIR NAMES?!"

"How does it feel knowing you will never know?" He took her face in his hand, and she pulled away quickly. "Maybe if you give me a Seer, I'll tell you…"

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Ron had gotten out of the ropes, the Bundimun had now eaten through the back of his shirt as well as part of his skin, he put Holmes senior in a chokehold wrestling away his wand. Draco tried aiming at Ron but Ron was using Holmes senior as a shield.

A vacant looking Draco then turned his wand towards Anna and yelled 'Diffindo' at her legs.

Ron yelled no! and let Holmes senior go, to physically stop the Curse like a Quaffle with his left hand making his forearm split open painfully spurting blood.

"RON!" Anna screamed.

Draco cast a sticking charm, and Ron was sent to the wall stuck and bleeding profusely.

Holmes senior looked back at Ron with distaste he walked to his side and sadistically poked Ron's cut with his wand. To his right Anna had crawled pathetically closer and was now at arm's length to Ron.

"Do you know it's very difficult to Imperious someone into casting Avada on someone? They really need to HATE that person all by themselves…I'm very lucky. Draco here hates this blood traitor enough to do it. Shall we watch?" He took a step back towards Anna to let Malfoy cast the spell.

"No." Anna said crying. Her legs were locked together under her, but as she saw Draco pull up his wand and the word Avada came out of his mouth, she didn't care anymore and pushed her father with all her might right to the path of the spell, making them both fall dead instantly.

Ron screamed.

Draco snapped out of the Imperius, he unstuck Ron and ran towards him.

Ron had gone to his knees to hold Anna up.

Anna's heart had stopped beating the second she had pushed her father, a pink flash had come blindingly from her chest a second later, but she was still unconscious.

Draco kneeled at her side and checked her pulse.

She's alive! It's really weak but it's there.

"Anna honey, wake up!" Ron said lightly slapping her cheek leaving a bloody handprint there.

Draco pulled up her nightgown.

"What are you doing!?" Ron asked aggressively.

"Hopefully saving her life." Draco said removing her potions holster, quickly analysing the contents.

Draco found Ditanny and quickly poured it on Ron's forearm.

"Help her first!" Ron screamed.

"You won't help her if you die of blood loss…Wideye potion!" Draco said handing the next vial to Ron.

Ron tipped it in her mouth, but there was no reaction.

"Anna! Anna!" He began to shake her. "She's getting colder!"

"FUCK! Didn't she just break an Unbreakable Vow? She should be dead!" Draco said confused.

"Help her!" Ron begged.

"The Vow operates like a curse…" Draco said raking his brain. "It may be similar to petrification… Mandrake Restorative Draught! Here!"

"Come on Anna, please!" Ron said tipping the other vial in her mouth.

Anna's back arched up dramatically as she gasped in air desperately and flailed inadvertently kicking Malfoy in the face.

"ANNA!" Ron said hugging her tightly.

"Ron?" Anna asked seeing a mop of red hair as she opened her eyes.

"Your alive!" Ron said almost crying from happiness helping her sit up.

"Am I dying? I feel like I'm dying." Anna said clutching her chest.

"That's my line…" Ron said smiling and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"It's the mandrake, it's unpleasant." Draco said wiping the blood from his lip, where her kick had landed.

"Mandrake…how did you know to do that?" Asked Anna impressed.

"Once upon a time I wanted to be a healer." Draco said a little forlorn.

"Maybe it isn't too late for you." Anna said sincerely.

"I think you no longer have the Vow on you." Draco said looking at the blood he wiped from his lip.

"What?" Anna said disoriented.

"I have the mark, and you just kicked the shit out of me waking up." Draco said looking at her eye reflexes with a lumos wand.

"You reckless woman! You knew pushing that monster would break the Vow! You couldn't stop yourself from saving me?" Ron said with no bite to his words at all.

"You are kind of death prone…" Anna said caressing Ron's cheek.

Draco felt like he was intruding on something. "Accio wands!" Four wands zipped to his hands, Ron's, Anna's, Hermione's and Holmes Senior's, he handed Ron his wand and Anna hers and her father's.

Ron helped Anna stand up.

"Is he really dead?" Anna asked still sceptical looking at her father's lifeless body.

"Exprimendum." Ron said bitingly.

Holmes senior's body shrivelled up into a withered husk before their eyes.

"I don't think he can come back from that." Draco said a little impressed.

"Malfoy, are Hermione and the kids alright?" Ron asked back in Auror mode.

"Yes, I just stunned them."

Ron grimaced.

"Hermione is going to kill you." Ron said almost feeling sorry for the ferret.

"Don't remind me. This way." Draco said dreading his fate.

As Draco turned a corner two red flashes tackled him to the floor wrestling his wand out of his hand. Rose kept him in a chokehold while Hugo immediately threw the wand toward Hermione coming in the rear who shouted "FINITE!"

"I'M ME ALREADY!" Yelled Draco.

Rose let go of her boyfriend's dad quickly, apologizing. "Sorry Mr. Malfoy"

As he hastily stood up brushing himself off, he was frankly impressed with his son's girlfriend's strength, suddenly Hermione shoved him furiously, making him almost stumble over again.

"YOU IMBICILE! HOW DID YOU GET IMPERIOUSED?!

"I'M SORRY! I HAD NEVER BEEN ON THE RECEIVING END OF THAT UNFORGIVABLE BEFORE!"

"IDIOT!" she yelled before throwing her arms around his neck, kissing him quickly and shielding her face on his chest so nobody could see her blushing and crying. "I'm so glad you're okay…"

"Not in front of the kids…" Ron whined.

Anna and Rose smiled; Hugo made a disgusted face.

Draco hugged her lovingly. "Wait how did you get out of the dungeon? I have your wand."

Hermione looked up to him having regained composure. "Alohomora was the first wandless spell I mastered. If it wasn't for your psychotic aunt, I could have sprung out the entire contents of your dungeon myself back in the day."

"Merlin, you are terrifying." Draco said smiling wanting to kiss her again.

"Where is her father?" Hermione asked extending her hand so Draco could give her her wand and handing him back his.

"Dead." Anna said with relief in the word.

"But this is not over, we were played, the re-election was a ruse to get us to free those geezers from prison, they all drank unicorn blood and are planning to get together to free Delphini Riddle and reinstate the death eaters." Draco explained.

"We need to tell Harry!" Hermione said anxiously.

Ron gave instructions. "The wards should be gone now; you should be able to Apparate out of here. Take the kids go to Malfoy Manor. Ferret sent a Patronus to let Scorpius know you guys are on your way. From there organize to start looking for those house arrest files; Anna and I will look around here for any information we can use to track them down. We'll contact you with Patronouses."

Draco look apprehensive for a second but then seemed to say, 'fuck it' and sent his Patronus out to get Scorpius ready for their arrival.

There was a small collective gasp as the room saw a silver otter rush out of Draco's wand. Anna didn't know what they were gasping about but was a little nervous since one of the things she also lost when using the 'Warrior's Farewell' on Charlie, was her ability to produce a Patronus.

"Oh Draco…" Hermione said softly taking his hand in hers and giving it a squeeze. She had to shake her head slightly to snap out of her thoughts and concentrate, she had a plan now. "Ron, this place is huge you'll need the Auror's to help you look. Where's your deluminator?"

"Brilliant! In my nightstand back in the flat!" Ron said cursing himself for not thinking about that before.

Hermione sent out her otter Patronus with a message for Harry.

Realization hit Anna, Hermione and Draco had the same Patronus, they were truly in love.

"Every quarter hour say Harry's name." Hermione instructed.

"Got it." Ron said enthusiastically leaving Anna extremely confused.

"Come on kids, huddle up…You two be safe." Hermione said with kindness in her eyes.

"You too." Ron said smiling softly.

36. 2021 Malfoy Manor

Hermione, Draco and the kids, apparated in the apparition point at the Malfoy Manor's outside gate.

Scorpius was running towards them from the Manor. The young man was the spitting image of his father at that age, but he was obviously not as athletic as Draco had been, panting considerably once reaching a pyjama cladded Rose and hugging her tightly.

"Are you hurt?" He said looking her over from her wild head of red hair to her toes.

"No, I just got stunned by your dad and then we tackled him." She said stifling a laugh.

"WHAT?!" Scorpius said looking at his dad for an explanation.

"Come on!" Rose said pulling him and Hugo faster along the way back to the Manor. "We'll tell you all about it."

Draco and Hermione were left in the Apparition point by themselves.

"I'll head to the Ministry to get those house arrest files" said Draco still holding her hand.

"So, an otter?" Hermione said smiling.

"Hermione you have to know, it's always been you…" He reached inside his inside breast pocket and pulled out a small black box and got down on one knee. "I know this isn't the best time, but I have been carrying this around ever since I knew of your divorce."

Hermione looked at the huge extravagant diamond surrounded by emeralds in a band of white gold and more diamonds.

"Is that the same ring?" Hermione asked stunned.

"I never gave it to Astoria, this was always meant for you." He told her placing it on her finger for the second and hopefully final time.

"Yes, I will marry you, you absolute arse for making me wait over 20 years!" She said pulling him up and kissing him.

They could not see that within the Manor their three children and multiple free now employed house elves were watching them from the windows jumping up and down with excitement.

37. 2021 Fourth floor of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes

Ron and Anna apparated back in the flat, with Hugo's trunk between them. Anna had healed their wounds as much as possible, but traces of hexes and burns were still all over their clothes, they had left Holmes Hall with Harry and 10 more aurors searching the place. In the trunk they brought back not only Hugo's tent and things, but another 2 trunks laid inside the expanded space, the remains of two girls between 6 and 8 years old inside them, with the names Aria and Charlotte written on the tops. They had found them in the abandoned greenhouse of Holmes Hall buried beneath two fairy rings.

Anna fell to her knees and finally let herself bawled her eyes out, Ron knew Harry had already secured the flat when he came in to get the Deluminator, so he just sat next to her, hugged her and let her cry as much as she needed.

38. 2021 Malfoy Manor

Re-election cancelled; the Minister of Magic Hermione Granger discovers death eater plot to take control of the ministry.

Head Auror Harry Potter apprehended over a hundred death eaters in secret meeting spearheaded by the re-election committee to overthrow Minister Granger. Ms. Holmes formerly Weasley was under the protection of Ex-Auror Ronald Weasley, Minister Granger's now ex-husband. Both the minister and her now ex-husband had been working together to uncover this nefarious plot where it was crucial to maintain their divorce a secret from the public. The minister has now formally announced her engagement to her former re-election campaign manager Draco Malfoy.

Draco read out loud to Hermione as they laid in bed in his opulent room with the sun streaming in from a window overlooking the gardens.

"It's official everybody knows now." Draco said grinning, he was currently sitting on his bed, next to Hermione who was laying covered by his green silk sheets hair an absolute mess looking pensively at the ceiling with her hands behind her head. His scars where hardly visible anymore, only a faded dark mark remained on his forearm, blurry almost like a huge birthmark.

"It's…freeing…" She said in awe.

Draco continued reading the article absentmindedly, but something was gnawing at the back of his mind.

"Hermione…are you really over the Weasel?" Draco asked out of nowhere lowering the prophet.

Hermione rolled to her side and pulled up her eyebrow. "Really Draco? I said yes to marrying you…"

"It's just you got really upset when you thought he was sleeping with his sister-in-law…Don't get me wrong, I love it when you're terrifying…it's sexy as hell." He said leaning down and kissing her quickly. "But why would you care so much?"

Hermione exhaled and laid back down to look at the ceiling. "It wasn't because of him, it's because it was her…I've never trusted her around him."

"What do you mean?" Draco said now laying on his side playing with one of her curls.

"She asked him to the Yule Ball, she taught him how to dance, she snuck into his dorm room, she personally treated him multiple times as a healer at St. Mungo's when we were broken up, and I asked, she didn't even work there at the time…" Hermione said now looking at Draco. "I've just always thought she's been carrying a torch for him all these years…I was happy she ended up with Charlie because that meant she was far away. But then he goes and leaves me when I was 9 months pregnant with Rose to go alone to her wedding."

"You really don't like her do you?" Draco said somewhat surprised.

"You shouldn't either! She was allowing our kids to spend nights together!" Hermione said outraged.

"I mean…yeah… but at least she got Rose on the potion beforehand…" Draco said calmly.

"YOU KNEW?!"

"You don't talk to your kids about being safe?" Draco said raising his eyebrow disapprovingly.

"Of course, but it's for after they finish their education!" Hermione said defensively.

"You do remember our last year at school, right? I got you on the potion myself." Draco said teasingly.

"Oh, shut up!" Hermione said slapping his chest playfully.

"I'm just saying they were going to do it anyway…" Draco said taking her hand in his and intertwining their fingers.

"Well, it's not just that, she claims to be a Seer…hogwash…she's an unregistered Animagus…and I always feel like she's hiding something…"

"For good reason…Hermione, you didn't get to hear her father, what he wanted to do to her, to Rose, to you! I think she really was just trying to hide from him." He said feeling a shiver pass through his body at the memory of being Imperioused by that monster.

"I hate that my kids like her more than me..." Hermione said in a small voice.

"Now that's not true! She's their aunt, who unlike mine, fed them…took care of them…" He kissed her hand before remembering. "Gave them some sort of steroids…your daughter is terrifyingly strong!"

Hermione laughed. "Serves you right for stunning us!"

"Believe me, I'll never do it again!" Draco said smiling.

Hermione smiled in contemplation before speaking again. "I guess …it's also…a little bit because I think…he likes her too…"

"Oh, he does, but I believe them when they said they haven't done anything, I think the Weasel is too stupid to realize it yet."

"When are you going to stop calling him that?" Hermione said with slight annoyance.

"When he stops calling me ferret!" Draco said pointedly.

Hermione laughed again. "He does have the emotional range of a teaspoon…"

"You are the one who married him…" Draco said teasingly.

"You left me first!" She said in mock outrage.

"I'd be dead if I didn't, wouldn't do you much help in that state, now, would I?" He said kissing her hand once more.

She looked into his eyes, and for a second was so grateful that everything that happened brought her back to his side.

"I'm sorry you can't work for me anymore." She said caressing his face lovingly.

"I'll manage." He said smiling before kissing her.

"What are you gonna do now?" Hermione asked once she broke the kiss.

"Well, since I'm picking up where I left off 20 years ago, I was thinking in trying for that experimental healer position again." Draco said smiling.

"What?!"

"Scorp is a man now, he doesn't need me around that much anymore, and even though I'm likely not going to be able to get your dad to walk you down the aisle by next June I would still like to eventually revert their magical memory loss and bring them back into your life."

"You're serious?" Hermione knew, memory loss got more and more difficult to revert with age, if she was sceptical 20 years ago it was nearly a lost cause now, not to mention an insane amount of time and effort.

"Yes! I know your schedule by heart, I'd be bored out of my wits just waiting for you to get home, this way we'll both be busy and we can come home to each other after a long day." Draco said with the enthusiasm of a teen making plans for his future.

"Home? You want me to live here?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Of course! You're the Minister of Magic; you should live in a Manor! Not that 3-bedroom flat you rent because it's conveniently close to the Ministry. You can throw functions here, entertain dignitaries, lounge in the library. The house elves can take care of everything while we both work, they get handsomely paid for it."

"Draco I am not sure…the history here…"

"Hermione the whole place was completely gutted and remodelled since the war, there is no stone remaining with that old history."

"The kids…" She said in a small voice.

"You a deluding yourself if you don't think Scorp and Rose are going to want their own place once they graduate next year. Hugo can stay with the Weasel during the week, and stay here on weekends, heck maybe Rose and Scorp will still want to spend the occasional weekend here too, we can do family Sundays."

"That sounds nice." She said smiling.

"So, you'll move in?" He asked hopeful.

"Okay, but I'm not taking your last name!"

"Nobody asked you to." Draco said laughing.

39. Wednesday September 1st 2021

Hermione, Draco and Ron where at platform 9 to say goodbye to all the kids.

They had hugged them and ushered them inside and was now by the sidelines waiting for the engine to start and pull out of the station.

"Congratulations on being reinstated as Minister of Magic for the foreseeable future." Ron told Hermione.

"Thank you, Ronald."

"And for your engagement." Ron added extending his hand towards Draco to shake.

"Thank you, Weasel." Draco said teasingly shaking his hand firmly.

"Where's Anna?" Hermione asked looking around.

"Oh, she had an interview in St. Mungo's to get her old potioneer job back, she was hoping her old room there would still be available." Ron said nonchalantly.

"You're serious?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Weasel, may I have a word with you?" Draco said pulling him aside by the arm.

"Sure Ferret." Ron said confused and looked back at Hermione looking for clues on what this was about.

"I'll just go say hi to Harry." Hermione said chipper running away quickly.

Once they had a decent distance from the crowd Draco let Ron go and proceeded. "Weasel, what the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"Excuse me!?" Ron asked offended, he'd been downright pleasant even with the whole engagement situation.

"Look, we are wizards, that means in the great scheme of things you and I are likely to live another hundred years at least."

"Yeah?" Ron was still confused.

"We're 40 years old that's practically 25 in muggle years."

"Okay."

"We practically have our whole life ahead of us still."

"If you say so."

"Look, I appreciate you fucking up your marriage, Merlin knows I did not think I would ever have a second chance with Hermione and now thanks to you I have another hundred years to look forward spending with her."

"Ferret, are you practicing your vows? What the bloody hell are you getting at?

"That you are clearly in love with Anna, and she is with you, and you are going to miss your window to have a whole lifetime of happiness if you don't grow a fucking backbone and tell her." Draco said slightly unhinged.

"What?! I'm not in love with her! She is like a sister to me." Ron said even more baffled by the conversation.

"Bollocks! You look younger, you got in shape, and even your hairline looks better, which is really pissing me off!" Draco said unconsciously running a hand through his bangs messing them up.

"She made me a shampoo…" Ron said deep in thought.

"I need that formula!" Draco said deadly serious to Ron's chagrin.

"I'll tell her to make it your wedding present." Ron said teasingly.

"I'd rather it be sooner than that…Look, in all seriousness, think about it, it's not normal to feel that close to a sister-in-law, and I would know, I can't stand Daphne...For Merlin's sake, don't you have like twelve of them? Do you feel the same way you feel for Anna for any of them?"

"I have three sisters-in-law apart from Anna, not twelve!"

"And?"

"It's not…they're not…No, okay no, I don't feel that way for them."

"See?"

Ron took a moment to really think about it, he hated to admit it, but the ferret was right, he loved having Anna around, they had a blast working on things for the joke shop together, they played together, she made him laugh, he even enjoyed her stupid visions making her do the randomest things.

"You really think I have a shot?"

"Weasel, she broke and Unbreakable Vow for you, literally, I still don't understand how she survived."

"You were going to kill me!" Ron said indignant.

"Like you wouldn't have done the same in my place!"

"Fair…"

"Take a shot the worst she could do is say no."

"Maybe it's too late, maybe she already accepted the position."

"Why am I here?" Anna said breathlessly running in her lime green healer robes, stopping next to Ron grabbing on to his shoulder.

"Anna!" Ron said surprised.

"I had a vision, I saw myself here, before the train pulled away, I cancelled my interview and came here as fast as I could, it felt important..."

Before she could finish Ron pulled her face in for a kiss.

She immediately responded in kind wrapping her arms around his neck burying both her hands in his hair and pulling him down to kiss him harder as well.

Draco exhaled relieved.

Hugo cheered from the window, and Rose yelled "FINALLY!" as the train started pulling away slowly.

As they pulled apart Anna took his face between her hands and really looked at him.

"Shit…You got dosed with Amortentia again, didn't you?"

Draco gave an undignified snort trying not to laugh.

"What?! NO!" Ron said slightly laughing.

"Of course you would say that, dammit!" She gave a step back.

"Anna I…" Ron was stopped by Anna pulling his collar once more to kiss him.

Anna pouted as she pulled away with eyes closed telling herself: "Last one." Before pulling him back for a last quick kiss before sadly saying: "Fuck me!"

Draco couldn't hold it any longer and was laughing.

"Convinced now?" Ron asked smugly.

"You're not drugged?" She asked surprised.

"No." Ron said laughing.

"How am I supposed to know that Ron? You had a dopey look on your face!"

"It was because you kissed me back you idiot…If you thought I was drugged why did you kiss me again?"

"Because I've wanted to kiss you for a quarter of a century…and because I thought I'd never get another chance to…"

Ron sweetly caressed her cheek. "Then stop running, stop hiding and stay with me."

"But you don't see me like that, you don't want me that way…"

"I do now…"

"Why?"

"Guess I have a type too, my type are smart, strong women, that are way too good for me."

Draco nodded in silent agreement.

Ron smiled and kissed her again. "No apocalyptic visions so far?"

"No" Anna said smiling widely.

"Is that a good thing?" Ron asked still smiling.

"It's a great thing." Anna said wrapping her arms around his neck burying both her hands in his hair and pulling him down to kiss him some more.

"Took him long enough." Harry told Hermione who surprisingly also smiled.

40. Epilogue December 2024

Ron and Anna finally decided to get married the weekend before Christmas on the 30th anniversary of them meeting. Anna wore a 1930s style, silk, long sleeved wedding dress that was handed down from great aunt Tessie. The dress was beautiful, but the smell was what had made every other Weasley refuse to use it for their weddings until Anna figured out a potion that could remove it entirely. The Burrow was decked out once more with the huge tent, and even thought it was just family, it was filled to the brim with now four generations of Weasleys, even Charlie was there with his new girlfriend Amber, happy for his brother.

They heard the characteristic pops from Apparitions from outside the tent, and where a little confused, given everyone was already accounted for. Anna opened the tent and gasped.

Twelve witches and wizards were now at the entrance and at the front of the group where two familiar faces in their fifties.

"Hey little sister." The older of the two wizards said smiling.

"Francis? Auggie?" Anna jumped and pulled both her brothers into a hug. "Merlin! I haven't seen you in over 30 years!"

"Well... not quite, it's been 26 years actually, but we understand that you don't remember." Auggie said smiling and going into the tent.

"What?" Anna asked confused while opening the tent to let the others in.

"Hi mom." A ginger man in his late 20's said smiling, he was the spitting image of George 20 years ago, but his eyes were aquamarine.

"This is Georgie." Francis said with pride, putting his arm around the young man's shoulder.

Everyone gasped and looked at George accusingly.

"Don't look at me!" George said putting his hands up.

"He's Fred Weasley's and your son." Auggie said quickly seeing the apparent misunderstanding.

Molly fainted.

The whispers were deafening.

"How is this possible?" Anna asked touching the young mans face analysing it, making him laugh.

"You had a vision" Francis said touching her shoulder to pull her out of her daze. "That vision gave you the way to find us in America, in your vision you and Fred entrusted us your 1-year-old son and asked us to raise him and not bring him back to you until after dad died. So here we are."

"How did you know dad's dead? We didn't divulge that." Anna asked surprised.

"Georgie told us, he's a Seer." Auggie said proudly.

Anna gasped slightly horrified.

"Relax he has it way better than you. He sees possible futures and can even choose to change them." Francis said still holding her shoulder.

"He's exactly what dad wanted so we took every precaution to keep him hidden." Auggie said with his arm around Georgie.

"OP if you ask me." Said another young man in his 20s behind Francis. "Hi auntie."

"Who are…?" Anna said pointing to the now dozen of people who were now inside the tent hearing every single family secret so casually.

"Oh, sorry these are our wives and your nephews and their wives and girlfriends, we all live in the countryside in America."

A deluge of introductions, and congratulations, and hugs followed.

"Wicked, more cousins!" Hugo said excited.

Rose gave him a side eye reminiscent to her mother.

Ginny stepped up given her mother's state.

"Okay Weasley's! Were gonna need more food and more tables, girls follow me into the kitchen, boys search the Burrow for anything you can transfigureintomore chairs and tables!"

"Aunt Ginny that is so sexist! Boys can cook too." Rose said crossing her arms in a very Hermionish way.

"I make a mean Cacio e Pepe." Scorpius said in the most pretentious accent possible.

"Have at it." Ginny said exasperated.

"And Anna…" Ginny said in a stern tone.

Anna felt the hair sticking up on the back of her head from that tone. "Yes?" She asked meekly.

"You better not start explaining yourself until we are ALL back and seated…" Ginny said staring daggers.

Harry gulped knowing full well the wrath she could incur if she didn't comply.

Once all were seated Ron and Anna began explaining an abridged version of the facts.

Anna was a Seer, but she could not change what she saw.

This was kept secret since her father was a eugenics enthusiast death eater.

She saw Fred dying 2 years before the fact and asked him to obliviate her, he agreed on the condition she began a secret relationship with him and obliviated her right before the final battle.

Ron knew this because Fred left him a letter explaining but hadn'tknownabout the baby.

Apparently during their 2-year relationship they had a son in secret, lived as a family for a year, before entrusting their son to his uncles in America to raise him and keep him safe until the day Anna's father died.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there." Anna said lightly squeezing Georgie's hand.

"It's okay mom, I've had a great life. Grew up together with my cousins. My uncles did an amazing job."

"We brought this as well, you asked us to keep it for you." It was a photo album, it had photos of her pregnancy and Georgie's first year as a baby, they looked so happy, she suddenly really wished she wasn't obliviated.

"You know if you want Draco can reverse your memory loss, so you can remember what it was like being his mum." Hermione said understanding her mindset without words.

"Really?" Anna asked beaming.

"Absolutely, with that album, it should be way easier than with Hermione's parents." Draco said looking over to where Mr. and Mrs. Granger were happily seated beside Hugo.

"Thank you." Anna said hugging both Hermione and Draco fiercely.

One of the pictures in the album showed her casting her barn owl Patronus over little baby Georgie and watching him giggle, she was happy she was once again able to cast it after Ron and her got together.

She then turned to her brothers and hugged them and thanked them for taking care of her son all these years.

"It's the least we could do little sister, we still regret having left you behind all those years ago." Francis said sadly.

"You kept saying you needed to stay, that more lives would be saved that way." Auggie said smiling.

"She was right." Ron said lovingly caressing her silvering hair.

"Mom, my girlfriend and I are moving to London. We'd love to be able to spend more time with the other side of my family. And would love to have our baby spend time with you." Georgie said putting his hand over his girlfriend's barely visible belly. Making everyone gasp.

"That's so great! Victorie and Teddy are expecting as well! The cousins will grow up together." Dominique said enthusiastically.

"Dominique! You ruined the surprise!" Victorie scolded her little sister.

One of Georgie's American cousins leaned over to him and asked. "So, your new step-sister and step-brother are yourcousins?"

"That's some Sweet Home Alabama shit right there." Another cousin snickered under his breath.

"Dude, his new step-sister's step-brother is her husband…" Another cousin whispered to the snickering one.

"What the hell is wrong with British wizards?"

The end