The Seaside Retreat

Chapter 29 … The Rest Of Our Lives

The girls were now about six months old and it was a surprise to no one who truly knew Severus that he doted upon his daughters. For all the bullshit he spouted for years about having to deal with obnoxious dunderheads who were spoiled rotten he was well on his way to making his daughters the most spoilt of them all. He had even gotten over his aversion to the color pink and could be seen during several weekends happily pushing a large pink stroller around Hogsmeade with the girls safely tucked inside.

Their apothecary had taken off splendidly and with the profits they had earned thus far, Hermione and Severus had built a large lab onto the house where they could brew a majority of the potions for the shop and experiment with new breakthroughs. They had hired several employees to work the store for them and all they had to do was handle the book keeping and keep the shop well stocked which left them ample time with their family and to develop new cures. After the Remus Potion had been distributed to everyone who needed it, free of charge to those who couldn’t afford the ingredients, they developed the first cure to the after effects of crucio.

Ron and Millicent had married the previous month and though Ron failed his Auror exam he surprised everyone by going into the Ministry and becoming the new partner in the misuse of muggle artifacts office. Arthur had been promoted much to everyone’s delight, and it was with a large smile and a tear in his eye that he handed his son the keys to the office. Millicent was thrilled to announce her parents overwhelming approval of her decision to marry Ron and with a generous donation from her parents, opened an orphanage dedicated to the memory of all those who had lost family in the war.

They had begun making quite a life together and with their charity and hard work they had moved quickly up the social ladder. They had begun planning for their first child, but in a cruel blow to the couple, after a trip to St. Mungo’s they were told that Millicent was unable to carry a child to term. They took the blow better then expected, and in the couple true fashion they announced to their friends that they had plans to adopt from their orphanage. Hermione had never been so proud of her friend before, and even Severus would tell the story of one of his Slytherin students to anyone that would listen.

As a gift to their friend’s happy news of adoption, Severus and Hermione started a charity that would allow any student with magical ability to be allowed to enter Hogwarts with at least the bare minimum of a new wand and at least two new sets of student robes. And for the unfortunate children who showed no signs of magical ability, funds were set aside to allow the children to be schooled and trained for either the muggle world, or jobs they could do in the wizarding world without magic.

Ginny was close to completing her final year, and Harry had plans to propose shortly after she graduated. He couldn’t wait until he was able to start a family of his own and luckily Ginny was as bright eyed and hopeful of their future together as Harry was. Harry had begun major renovations on Grimmauld place and he was several months from completing it, but it was nearly unrecognizable as the depressing, dank, hole it was before.

Hermione and Severus had vowed to create a potion to cure Millicent’s problem, which were not rooted in fertility, so they could not be solved by simple fertility potions. She could get pregnant, quite easily actually, but for some reason that the healers couldn’t identify she couldn’t carry the child past a couple of weeks. Ron and Millicent were ecstatic about the couples vow to find a way to allow them to have their own children some day though they were both whole heartedly content with heir decision to adopt.

Draco and Neville were still together, and living at Hogwarts. Draco had accepted a junior Professorship in charms while he finished his apprenticeship and was teaching flying on the side. As it turned out, the rumors were true about Madame Hooch and she had run off with another woman to celebrate their life together in the bright post Voldemort world. What did surprise everyone however, was the fact that it was Professor Sprout she had run off with, leaving herbology vacant for Neville to do what he always dreamed of and help shape the students in the subject he knew best. The happy couple was considering adopting as well.

And as for Blaise, he had found a beautiful blonde muggle whom he fell madly in love with while he was traveling after graduation. The couple had eloped in Sweden where they met and were continuing to travel the world before they would settle back in London and Blaise would join Harry in the Auror department. The group of friends kept in close contact with each other, but due to their busy lives it was not very often that they had the opportunity to get together.

It was yet another six months later when the twins first birthday party drew the group together again. The whole group was gathered at the Snape’s home and were watching the children play and enjoy each other. Hermione and Severus had invited the entire orphanage for a bit of fun and sunshine, and currently Severus was watching his wife warily, knowing the look on her face meant they were about ten minutes from adopting one of the orphans. That look was the reason they had three cats, she couldn’t walk away from something she deemed worth saving. Thank Merlin for that though, or else they may have been partying at a dark revel instead of his daughters first birthday party.

Several rolls of film were taken as the twins toddled around after the four year old rambunctious boy named Collin that Ron and Millicent had adopted. Though it was not nearly as cute as Draco and Neville who were busy being sickeningly sweet and crooning over their beautiful baby boy named Erick who had been abandoned by his mother several months back on the steps of the orphanage.

The highlight of the party came however when it was time to track down the children for cake and ice cream and Hermione found them in a circle clapping and giggling as Severus pulled several live white rabbits out of a hat announcing “Abra Cadabra” and handing the small furry animals to the children to enjoy. He apparently had awarded himself no small amount of satisfaction knowing that there would be no shortage of mating bunnies in the orphanage in a few months.

Ginny and Harry were happy to announce to the group that they were indeed engaged and would be married in several months. Looking around at her childhood friends and even her childhood enemies all gathered at her home was enough to send Hermione into a quick fit of nostalgia and she felt herself tear up. For the first time since she was a child Hermione could look around and honestly believe that everything would be okay from then on. Surviving the perils of childhood intact was difficult enough for any child, magical or not, but the group of people gathered around her today were some of the strongest she had ever met.

The party continued without a hitch and even Severus enjoyed himself, taking the time to make sure they got pictures of “Uncle Remus” dressed as a clown and trying to juggle. They were amazed at his agility with the things he chose to juggle until they noticed Tonks hiding her wand rather poorly and levitating the items for him. It was bound to be a full and wonderful life for everyone and it the years that followed there would be many a happy memory and cause for celebration for the friends.

Hermione was reflecting upon these feelings of rightness and even planning a trip to the cottage in Maine with Millicent and Ginny for the following summer when Severus tapped her on the shoulder and pulled her away from the group. When questioned why he simply reached behind him and pulled out a long velvet box. Upon inspecting it she was pleased to find a long silver bracelet with that was intertwined with a matching gold one. The effect was beautiful but it wasn’t truly stunning until she read the small inscription on the back which read “thank you for allowing me to live ‘happily ever after’”.

The End

A/N- First of all, Christina if you’re reading this, this chapter is for you! I love you babe!

Alright guys, so I am currently writing an epilogue which shall be out in around two days. I don’t think I am quite fond of the final chapter but it will have to do and I can hopefully make up for the inadequacies in the epilogue. Thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed and thank you to those who just read. What started out as a way to kill some time ended up being something that has meant a lot to me. There are a lot of you who have kept me writing and even made me feel like I was part of a little community with people like myself who just wanted to pretend for awhile. It has been such great fun and I have some ideas for a couple new stories that I will hopefully get out soon! Thank you so much!