Harry and Eve stepped back into the kitchen. Harry watched as Hermione was talking to Lilly, his hand clenched and he tried to calm himself down.
"Get the hell away from my daughter," was the subdued statement he said.
"Harry, can't we talk? It's been ten years..."
"I don't want my daughter talking to a murderer, please refrain from speaking to her."
"Look in the mirror." Hermione said before she stood and apperated out.
"You don't have to treat her like that, you don't know what happened after you left mate."
"I'm not your mate, and I don't care what happened."
Eve watched as the man backed away, which left the three of them alone at the table, that was to be short lived though. The woman Eve knew to be her grandmother came in and set food in front of all of them.
"Now Harry, I want you to eat up. You look like skin and bones, don't tell me my daughter never cooked you a decent meal."
Eve and Lilly giggled.
"Mummy couldn't boil water." Lilly said.
"Dad cooks, it's his job." Eve said.
"Your job?"
"I'm a chef at one of London's biggest restaurants." Harry smiled.
"Head chef." Eve corrected.
"Well Mrs. Weasley is a better cook than me so tuck in." Harry messed up Eve's hair and she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Harry dear," Mrs Weasley said, "You don't have to call me that, just call me Mum."
Harry nodded, although he felt uncomfortable doing so, he would never tell her that.
"Now, someone from the legal bureau called, Ginny's will is going to be read tomorrow, and we all need to be there. Once you're finished eating you should get some rest for tomorrow."
* * *
Ginny tucked her arm under Harry's as they sat in the living room.
"Harry, I know you're not in love with me."
Harry was about to protest, but she cut him off.
"The truth of the matter is I'm not in love with you either. I love you, but I'm not in love with you."
Harry nodded knowing she just wanted his acknowledgement before she went on.
"But we're married, and I love you too much to actually think about dating any other men. Why would I try and meet other men when I have a perfect one right at home? I think it all boils down to one thing, can I have sex with a man I'm not in love with, but I love deeply? The answer, for me, is yes. So the question to you is, would you like to go upstairs?"
Harry stood up and turned back to Ginny, hand outstretched. She took it and allowed him to pull her close to him.
She looked deeply into his emerald eyes, "Over time, you'll get over her. You'll get over her and fall in love with me. I'm going to do the same. And we'll all live happily ever after, I just know we will."
* * *
Harry woke up and looked around, he was in Ron's old room. Harry detangled himself from his daughters and went over to Ginny's room. As he looked at it from the doorway he could just imagine seeing Ginny pop her head out as he, Ron, and Hermione went up to Ron's room; wanting to be included.
Harry took the pillow from the bed and sat in the corner.
'We'll all live happily ever after, I just know we will.'
Harry cried and brought the pillow tight against him.
"I'm so sorry Ginny."
* * *
Hermione sighed as she saw Harry asleep, holding one of Ginny's pillows to him, sitting in the far corner of her room. She went downstairs and went to Mrs. Weasley.
"I found him. He's in Ginny's room."
Mrs. Weasley sighed in relief.
"I know there's almost no danger now, but I still panic if I think he's out there all alone."
Hermione smiled weakly.
"Are you planning on talking to him?"
"He wont talk to me. I'm not going to try and force a reconciliation on him. And the truth of the matter is his wife just died, it would be selfish if I tried."
Mrs. Weasley set a plate in front of Hermione.
"Those girls... So headstrong..."
"Of course, they're Ginny's after all."
"I don't even know if I knew my girl. I never asked the boys about their... romantic lives, I did the same with Ginny, I didn't know to treat her differently than the boys, I never cautioned her... we never talked."
"It wasn't your fault, Ginny knew better. And it's not like she was left alone without the father."
"I just kept thinking if I talked to her about it more, maybe she would have known she could have always come to me for help, maybe I wouldn't be just getting to know my grandchildren." She said wiping away nothing from the kitchen table.
Hermione put her hand down on the table, hard, "That settles it. I'll go steal the time turner from McGonagall, I think I can take her on, now especially since she's older, and we'll go undo what was done. Eve and Lilly would be gone... actually there's a fifty-fifty percent chance they'll be gone, but we'll be happy, and that's all that matters."
Mrs. Weasley laughed, "All right, you win."
"Thank you. I think I should leave soon anyway, I don't want t be here when he wakes up."
"Dear I'm sure it was just because of-"
"I know." Hermione smiled, but it never reached her eyes.
"You will have to come to the reading though."
Hermione nodded and apperated back to her apartment.
* * *
Harry sat in the seat closest to the lawyer and tried to not pay attention to the people that came into the room. When everyone was situated the lawyer started.
"I, Ginerva Weasley, am of sound mind and body. This is not an ordinary will. I have spent the last eight years with my husband, whom I love dearly, and all my finances shall be given to him and our children. In life we shared everything so I only see fit that in death he should have to take everything I have. This will isn't about money, it's about feelings, about what some of you might have felt during our absence.
"First, to my parents. I love you as much as any child could love a parent, don't ever think that my leaving had anything to do with what you did 'wrong,' quite the opposite actually. I knew you would forgive me and help me in any way you could, you would have given me anything I asked and I couldn't bear asking the two kindest people in the world to give all of that to a person who could never deserve it. I want you to know I loved you, and I will always love you, nothing in this world or the next could ever break that.
"To my brothers. Thank you for being everything that you were. I was the only girl, but you always made me feel like one of the guys. The smallest and scrawniest, but one of the guys none the less. I love you all so deeply, and I know you won't be able to take all this mushy stuff for too long, Fred and George especially, but I want you to know you have given me so much, everything that I am is because I had you to look up/down to.
"Luna Lovegood, thank you for being ridiculous and taking care of Ron, he needs you.
"Hermione Granger. Hermione.... I don't know what to say to you. I think the one thing I can do in death is say you are forgiven. I forgive you for all that you have done, and I wish you a happy healthy life.
"My girls. I love you, nothing in life or death could ever change that. I'm sorry I've left you, it's not because I chose to, know that I would trade anything to have just one more minute with you. Be good for your father and tell him you love him every day, because you never know when you will have your last moment with someone.
"Harry. My Harry. I don't know what to say to you, you are everything. You have given me my daughters and a home I never dreamt of. You have given me everything and sacrificed your own happiness, I have never known such a selfless being and you amaze me each and every day I wake up to see you there. I want you to know, what we talked about on our first anniversary, I'm beginning to. I want you to live after I'm gone, if you don't I'm going to haunt your arse. I love you so much.
"And that is all. I just hope everyone can realize that what brought them here is love, and that is a hundred times more powerful than hate."
The lawyer shook Harry's hand and left the room. Harry wiped Lilly's cheeks and put his arms around his daughters.
"You guys okay?" He asked.
They nodded against him.
Harry watched as Luna and Hermione hugged, a site he never thought he would see, and Arthur, who was crying himself, tried to comfort his wife.
"Daddy, can we go?" Eve asked.
Harry nodded and escorted them out of the office. Once he got out there he saw something he wished he would never have to see, Draco Malfoy.
Arthur took Molly out of the office at the same time Draco Malfoy came in close and whispered something to Harry. Harry, in turn, attacked him.
Arthur pulled Harry away from Draco Malfoy, which was a feat that needed the help of all of the Weasley brothers.
Malfoy wiped the blood from his lip, laughed heartily, and walked on. While this puzzled everyone, they dare not ask Harry anything quite yet.
Mrs. Weasley watched as Harry took her grandchildren and left the building. She apperated back to the Burrow, and awaited his arrival.
Hermione and Ron shared a look, and quickly followed suit.
When they arrived in the kitchen Harry was wiping the soot off his children's clothes.
"What in the hell is wrong with you Harry?" Ron asked.
"Nothing, it was nothing." He said as his daughters walked upstairs to their room.
Harry started to clean the kitchen table, but was stopped by Molly.
"Dear… What's wrong?"
*** *** ***
"What's wrong Ginny?" Harry asked as he and Ginny cleaned up Eve's playroom.
Ginny sat down at the small plastic table and started to sort through the drawings. Harry sat beside her and began to put the Play-Doh back in its tubs.
"I… I can't believe what I've done to you."
Harry's heart began to race, "Is… Is there another man?"
Ginny smiled sadly, "Never. It's just with the way we had to grow up there was always the fear of death, planning afterward almost became second nature. Remember when you got angry with Ron and willed your Firebolt to Hermione?" Ginny shook her head, "I haven't planned these things out. 'If anything were to happen to us,' we always had everything planned; even if something were to happen to you."
"I don't see where you're taking this…"
"What if something happens to me? What if something happens to me, and a blood test is done on Evie… What happens if Draco Malfoy comes and knocks on our door? How could I live with myself if your little girl is taken away from you because of me?"
*** *** ***
"Things got out of hand… I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley, just after Ginny's will and seeing Malfoy…"
Mrs. Weasley paused, then said, "What did he say to you?"
Harry's eyes shut tightly for a moment, then he shook his head, "I can't repeat it."
His two old friends walked outside quietly as he talked to Mrs. Weasley.
"I've been meaning to ask you something Harry." Mrs. Weasley asked as she sat down at the kitchen table.
Harry sat across from her and waited for her to continue what she had to ask him.
"Did you love my baby?"
"Of course," Harry said forcefully.
She opened and closed her mouth, then inhaled deeply, "Then why, when she was pregnant with your child, did you tell Hermione you were in love with her? I'm just trying to understand..."
Harry sat there for a while watching this woman and seeing the pain this thought inflicted on her. He wanted to comfort her with the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to it.
"Things were complicated that year. I... I can't explain my actions to you."
"Why not? She was my daughter, I loved her so much, and you stole her away from me. You took her away and I just want to know if it was worth it, if the man that took my baby away truly loved her."
"The truth of the matter, the only thing I can tell you, is I have always loved Ginny. I may have not always been in love with her... but I can tell you, I'm not worth it. I'm not worth your daughter leaving you. But *my* daughters are."
Mrs. Weasley sighed; apparently knowing that was all the information she was to get from Harry.
She stood up and said, "Harry, I know you have... reservations, but staying away from your friends is not a good idea. I would suggest you take your own wife's advice, tell them how you feel about them now, you never know when someone will leave you."
And with that she began to clean the house, letting a little happiness in with every sweep of the broom.
Harry looked out of the door to see them in the garden kicking at the dirt. Garden Gnomes wouldn't be there at this time of the season, everything was harvested already and the seasons were ready to change. Harry went outside and approached them cautiously. He stood a good fifteen feet away from them, not watching, but not advancing.
"We were just agreeing that Malfoy was a prat." Ron said, directing his voice at Harry, but not looking over to him.
Harry nodded, "Something's will never change."
"Yeah, you're right." Ron said kicking another dirt clod, "Something's don't. Like Malfoy." he took a small pause, "And us."
"We'll always be the trio." Hermione said softly.
Harry let out a deep sigh of relief and nodded in agreement. None of the three had looked at each other, all of them occupied but not at all.
"I've been on the Chudley Cannons for a while now, keeper." Ron kicked a dirt clod clear out of the garden, "Course, we never won anything. I might become a coach next year, getting too old to play... I hear you are the best chef in London. At least that's what Eve says."
"No, just the head of the most expensive restaurant. It's really rather shocking how good I am at it... considering all of my potions turned to soup."
"Well there you go, practice." Ron said smiling.
Harry returned it, then looked away again.
"And Hermione's a big time reporter for the NEW Daily Prophet, only printing truth now that our Hermione's there."
Harry's eyes immediately turned to Hermione, begging silently for her to look at him and tell him it was the truth. She looked to him for a moment then looked back down at the ground with a furrowed brow.
"When you left I couldn't... A lot of things changed when you left... Including me."
They stood quiet for a long while, until Harry said, "I'm sorry Hermione... Ron."
Hermione's eyes finally connected with his and she nodded, "I'm sorry too."
Hermione quickly walked to Harry and hugged him. Her hug was just as tight as he had remembered, and that made a part of him sad for having to miss his friend for so long.
"I'm not sorry for anything." Ron said shrugging.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other then looked to him, opening their arms to him.
The three of them hugged, and Harry felt happy for being given the chance to be with his friends again.