A/N: Over a hundred reviews for five chapters?! I'm flabbergasted! Honestly, I had no idea that this little thing would get such a response. And I thank you. I thank so very very much the reviewers and also just to anyone who read and liked this little fic. If this brightened up your day, then I consider it a job well done.
With that said, this is the final chapter. I thought about extending it just a bit, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn't fit so I decided to end it here. Hopefully this last chapter will connect everything in a satisfying way. I had fun, I hope you did too.
This is un-beta'd (my beta's gone MIA, I hope she's ok) so all mistakes, blah blah blah.
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Almost Five Years Later
"Harry!"
"I'm in the kitchen!"
Hermione came running into the kitchen from the door in time to watch Harry kick the stove he'd been bemoaning since their move six months earlier. "Stupid bloody piece of shi - hi, love!" Harry turned with such a guilty look Hermione almost reached out and kissed him.
"Harry, the love of my life, the reason I live, I kind of um, indulged a bit," Hermione said with an excited glint in her eye and a nervous smile.
"Indulged," Harry repeated slowly, leaning against the stove he'd been trying to fix. "Define `indulged.'"
Hermione bit her lower lip and wrung her hands. "Weeell, it's probably better if you saw her than if I tried to explain."
"Somehow I think you're still going to need to explain," he replied pushing away from the stove and gesturing for her to lead the way.
She took his hand and led him outside and down the stoop, stopping next to a brand new sleek black Porsche. "Indulged," Hermione stated again, hooking her arm with Harry's and looking up at him anxiously.
"Um, I was right. You will have to explain," he said running a hand over the cool contours of the roof.
"I was walking past that new dealership a few blocks down," Hermione started. Harry nodded to indicate he knew which one she was talking about. "When I saw her I really wanted her. And then when I got in her and drove round a bit, it was like I'd fallen in love again."
Harry frowned at this. "You're leaving me for a bloody car?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. But remember when you got your Firebolt? Remember how shiny and new and fast it went and it was the greatest sensation in the whole world when you rode it?"
Harry's eyes went unfocused as she lost him in his memories. "Yeah," he sighed.
"Well, that's how I feel about my Porsche."
Harry nodded in understanding, still looking over the car.
"Are - are you ok with it?" Hermione asked hesitantly, sliding her hand down to his hand and holding it tightly.
Harry grinned lopsidedly and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ok with it. I'm just a bit shell shocked that my lovely bookish girlfriend would have a secret speed demon lurking within her."
Hermione chuckled softly with relief, pressing her face into his upper arm near his shoulder.
"After all, we're allowed a splurge or two right?" Harry went on with a grin.
Hermione stepped back with a raised eyebrow. "Don't tell me you got something too."
"No, not yet anyway," Harry replied vaguely, his eyes distant with thought. He was already dreaming of a new stove. Oh what he couldn't do with a new stove and Hermione had just presented the perfect excuse to get one too.
Hermione, however, pursed her lips. She didn't like the sound of that, but honestly what could she do? It'd be utterly hypocritical of her to protest Harry's splurge when he gave in so easily and graciously to hers.
"So are you going to let me drive it?" he asked, pulling himself out of his thoughts and steering her back inside.
"Do you know how to drive a car?"
"Well . . . I was hoping you'd teach me."
Hermione snorted. "I'd rather think not. Not in my car. Besides, that just spells disaster and possible grounds for a break up."
Harry grinned knowingly. "You'll come around."
"I'll let you keep thinking that," she said, patting his back as she headed to the bedroom. She glanced at the piece of preserved parchment sticky charmed to the door and grinned. It was a few years old and was barely legible with all the crossed out and cramped writing but it never failed to elicit a fond grin from her or Harry. Shortly after their move, Ron had placed it on the bedroom door with a smirk announcing that Hermione had finally found her ritzy strip club. "Don't forget," she called out jerking her thoughts back to present, "we need to be at the Burrow by two. What time is it now?"
Harry glanced at the clock on the mantle above the fireplace and winced. "Um, two?"
Hermione flew back into the living room, her eyes wide. "What?! Is it that late?!"
"Yes?"
"Bugger! Are you ready?"
Harry glanced down. He had on relatively clean jeans, a clean t-shirt, an unstained jumper and decent trainers and his wand was in his back pocket. "It appears so. Are you?"
Hermione looked torn. She really wanted to take a shower and wear her new dress, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. "Yeah, let's go," she sighed.
They Floo'd over only to be accosted with the sights and sounds of the Burrow in full swing. "Oi! About time you made it!" Ron greeted them, a teasing glint in his eye.
"It's her fault this time," Harry ratted immediately.
"Oh fine boyfriend you are!" Hermione huffed, but it was without rancor. They followed Ron into the den where everyone was gathered.
"She bought a Porsche," Harry explained sitting on the couch with Hermione and Ron.
Ron frowned thoughtfully. "Where would you keep it in London?"
Hermione and Harry exchanged confused glances. "On the curb where it's supposed to be," she replied.
"Isn't that a little cruel, Hermione?" Ron asked taking on a know-it-all tone and air.
"Ron, what're you talking about?" Harry asked looking over Hermione to his best mate.
"Isn't a Porsche a type of horse?"
Harry and Hermione laughed. "No! It's a car silly," Hermione gasped between giggles.
"Then why didn't you say so!" Ron sighed rolling his eyes. "Luna love, join us!"
Luna walked over from talking to Ginny and sat on Ron's lap. "Harry, Hermione," she smiled at them. "I feel it is my duty to warn you."
Harry glanced at Hermione when Luna didn't continue but stared off into space with a vague smile. "Yes?" Harry asked.
Luna visibly started, glancing around then back to her husband and his friends. "Yes?"
"You were warning them about something, love," Ron replied grinning up at his wife.
"Ah. Yes. Molly has gone an entire year without marrying anyone," Luna's dreamy eyes became focused and she looked significantly at them. "I just thought you should know."
Harry and Hermione sighed softly. Immediately following the war they and Ron had moved into Grimmauld Place while they adjusted to the media attention and their new lives outside Hogwarts and Voldemort's threat. A year after their move, Ron and Luna married, but had decided to stay at Grimmauld until they could find a place to call their own. That took another two years in which they saved until they could buy a house on the outskirts of London where they were close enough to the city they'd grown to love yet far enough for to enjoy the country life they'd grown up with. In those two years Ginny and Draco had married, effectively making Hermione ten galleons richer, and after that it seemed there had been one wedding among the brothers since. Fred was the last to marry the previous fall. And while Molly hadn't given up on Charlie who seemed happy in his bachelorhood, with Luna's announcement it seemed as though she had her eye set on her adopted children.
Hermione knew they were going to get married sometime soon; they had talked briefly about it before finally moving out of Grimmauld and into their flat. But Harry still had frequent nightmares and Hermione was still dealing with her own traumas inflicted by the war. They had both agreed they weren't ready for the pressures of a wedding and then the pressures of building a family quite yet.
Molly Weasley on the other hand was the type who didn't take no easily.
"Thanks for the heads up Luna," Harry grinned up at her.
The younger witch nodded with a sympathetic smile.
"Dinner's served!" Molly called out.
"Blimey, it's about time!" Ron muttered jumping up and practically dumping Luna on her arse. Luna, having learned to be quick on her feet, leapt up with such a fluid and practiced move that it looked as though she had floated momentarily before she righted herself. Nonplussed, she followed Ron into the dining room with the enlarged table, Harry and Hermione on her heels.
"Draco!" Harry smiled sitting next to the uncomfortable looking Slytherin. "Is that -" Harry squinted and leaned closer to which Draco leaned away. "Is that actual pigment in your skin?" He gasped dramatically. "You have a tan!"
"Sod off, Potter," Draco grumbled, glancing nervously over at Ginny then over at the Weasley brothers.
"Well that wasn't much fun," Harry grumbled under his breath.
Hermione consoled him with a pat on his knee. "Maybe later, dear," she murmured in his ear.
Ginny stood once everyone had found their seats and cleared her throat. "Everyone, I have an announcement."
"You're getting a divorce!" Ron blurted out.
Ginny and Draco glared at him and the long arm of the law reached past Fred and Angelina to smack Ron on the back of the head. "Go ahead dear," Molly spoke up with an encouraging smile as she settled back in her chair.
Ginny frowned at Ron before clearing her throat again. "Thank you, mum. Draco and I just wanted to announce that I'm pregnant!"
Ron's agonized drawn out groan was heard clearly over the cheers and congratulations of the other Weasley's. Ron slumped so far in his seat in his pout that he was danger of falling off his chair and not even Luna's comfort seemed to help much.
Molly leapt up from her seat to give enthusiastic hugs to Draco and Ginny. Harry gulped at the appraising look Molly was giving him over Draco's shoulder as she hugged her son-in-law.
"Now she's really going to go all out," Harry whispered.
"Maybe, but maybe she'll be too distracted with Ginny to worry about us," Hermione whispered back.
"Did you just see that look? There's no way we're escaping her radar," Harry murmured. "Although . . ." he turned on his seat with his own speculative look.
"What?" Hermione asked warily.
"If you teach me to drive, that might help."
Hermione snorted and grabbed the bowl of mashed potatoes in front of her. "I see absolutely no correlation, but regardless, the answer's still no."
She'll come around, Harry thought to himself as he served himself a dollop of potatoes and passed it on to Draco who, Harry noted, seemed far less nervous now that he knew he was actually going to survive to see his next meal. She always comes around.
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