Mrs Malfoy

A/N: I know, it has been far too long since I updated this story. It seems I am only writing when I am procrastinating, and since I had nothing to do over the summer, I didn't write. :/ However, it is now my last year at University and I will be pretty busy, so that probably means that I will finish this story by the end of the semester, haha. :)

Hope everyone is still reading and enjoying this story. The chapter is short, so I'll try to make the next one better. :)

~Charlie

Chapter 8

Hermione smiled up at Draco as they walked up the pavement to Ginny and Harry’s house. Draco had Rose on his hip—they had had to stop at the elder Malfoy’s in order to pick her up—and they were running about twenty minutes late.

There was a ruckus inside the house. Loud music was coming from inside and there was the sound of never-ending conversation. The front door was hanging open and there were an uncountable number of red-headed children chasing each other around the garden.

‘Ewgo!’ Rose called from Draco’s hip.

One of the red-headed children’s head shot up and he smiled. ‘Rose!’

Draco put Rose down and she joined in the play with the other children. ‘Hugo,’ Draco said to Hermione. ‘Weasley’s eldest. Rose has got a crush on him.’

Hermione smiled softly. ‘Rose and Hugo?’

Draco smirked. ‘Yeah.’

She leaned into Draco’s embrace and kissed him.

‘Hermione! Draco! You’re here, finally,’ a voice cried from inside the house. Ginny Weasley—ehm, Potter—ran out of the house and straight into Hermione’s embrace.

‘She’s had another relapse,’ Draco said.

‘We know,’ Ginny smiled. ‘Ron’s told us already.’

‘Is he here?’ Hermione asked. ‘I’d like to speak to him.’

‘Of course he’s here. And George, Percy, Bill, and Charlie. And all of their respective wives, you know? Except Charlie. And all the kids! Oh, and Teddy, of course. Luna and Neville couldn’t make it because he had a Herbology Conference to go to this morning.’

Ginny was rambling away as Draco dragged Hermione into the house. There were even more children in here. Hermione smiled. Everyone looked so happy.

‘Kids, come in here!’ Ginny yelled. ‘Line up!’

Hermione was amazed as all of the children came running back into the house and lined up right away; Hermione decided that it was probably in order of who the parents were.

‘Can everyone come in here?’ Ginny yelled. ‘Hermione’s had another relapse; we need to reacquaint her with everyone!’

All of the Weasleys and a few other people came shuffling into the room and seemed to take places behind their children.

‘Okay, Hermione,’ Ginny smiled. ‘This is Bill and Fleur, of course you know them, and this is Dominique and Victoire.’

Fleur smiled at Hermione. ‘And zis iz Louis.’ She had her hand over her stomach.

Ginny smiled. ‘Charlie,’ she said. Charlie was standing a bit away from the others and nodded slightly to her. ‘Percy and his wife Audrey, these two are theirs. Molly and Lucy.’

The two girls waved at Hermione with enthusiastic smiles.

‘George and Angelina. And this little guy is Fred,’ Ginny smiled. ‘Ron and Lavender,’ she said. ‘And their four, Hugo, Artie, Desmond, and Rider. And your little Rose there next to Hugo, as always.’

‘This one’s Oakley,’ Lavender said with her hand on her stomach. ‘Whether it’s a girl or a boy.’

‘Wow,’ Hermione said with a smile. ‘There’s so many of you.’

‘And these two are mine and Harry’s,’ Ginny said. ‘James Sirius and Albus Severus. And we watch over Teddy, of course.’

‘We’re hoping for a girl next,’ Harry said, putting his arms around his wife. ‘Lily.’

‘And that’s everyone,’ Ginny smiled.

‘Wow,’ Hermione said again. She looked around at all the people that she had known before and many that she had never seen. The Weasley’s had sure been prolific in the six years that Hermione did not remember. There were tons of them, but Hermione was happy for them all. She was happy and they were happy. ‘Ron, could I speak to you?’ she asked as Ginny released the children to go back to their playing.

‘Of course, Herms,’ Ron said and walked her through to another room.

‘I just wanted to thank you,’ she said with a smile.

He laughed softly. ‘I know.’

She shook her head and laughed as well. ‘Do I always do this?’ she asked. ‘Come to thank you for cheating on me so that we could both have happy futures.’

He smiled and wrapped her in his arms. ‘Most of the time.’

Hermione stayed in his embrace for a few moments before asking: ‘Am I happy with him?’

Ron pulled away from her and looked concerned. ‘Of course you are. I mean, I was angry and hurt and humiliated when you first decided to date him, Hermione, but he makes you happy.’

‘I just…I had this vision thing and we were fighting. Like really angrily fighting.’

He shook his head. ‘Well, you two do have a very passionate relationship. I’m sure that when you fight it’s very passionate fighting.’

She looked hard into his innocent face. ‘Yes, I suppose.’

He smiled. ‘We should probably go back into the party.’

His smile was infectious and she couldn’t help but returning it. ‘Okay.’

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hermione circulated fully throughout everyone that was at hers and Draco’s anniversary party. She talked to Bill and Fleur. About Bill still having a craving for red meats and that they still resided in Shell Cottage. She talked with George and Angelina and how they had married about the same time as Hermione and Draco had.

She watched the interaction between Rose and Hugo and smiled broadly when she could see the older boy dragging her around and protecting her from his brothers.

She was searching for Draco again when she came across a smaller room off of the main lounge and kitchen. There was a small upright piano in this room and it was being played beautifully by the freckled and burnt hands of Charlie Weasley. Hermione walked into the room and smiled at Charlie. He gave her a shy nod.

He wasn’t the best known of the Weasley boys as she had met him less often than all of the other Weasleys. After all, he did live in Romania and was not often at home. She wondered why he was home now, but soon realised that the Christmas Holidays were only a little over a week away and that he would be home for those.

‘How are you, Charlie?’ Hermione asked, standing beside him.

‘Truthfully?’ he asked, never missing a note on the piano. He was playing something that Hermione had never heard before, but it was gorgeous and flowed so perfectly all the same.

‘Of course,’ she said.

‘Lonely.’

She sat down next to him. She tried to say something but found that she couldn’t. She closed her mouth and looked at the piano.

‘My birthday was two days ago. No one even remembered. It’s especially palpable when Ginny is introducing all of the kids to you when this happens, and I just get a short mention because I’m not married, and I have no kids.’

‘Why aren’t you married then?’ she asked. ‘If you don’t mind me asking.’

He took a deep breath and looked at her, interrupting his fingers on the keys. ‘It’s not that I haven’t tried, Hermione. I’ve looked, I’ve searched, I’ve found, but I’ve never had a woman that would be mine. Everyone else was affected by the war so much more than I was. They all married their school sweethearts and I was left alone in Romania on a mostly all-male dragon reserve.’

She hugged him to herself. ‘Charlie,’ she said. ‘I’m sure there’s someone out there. Someone who will make you very happy.’

He chuckled wryly. ‘I’m thirty-three years old, Hermione. And I know exactly who will make me happy, she’s just already married to someone else.’

Hermione gave him a small frown. ‘That’s terrible, Charlie.’

‘And I think sometimes that I’ve gotten over her,’ he said with a frown. ‘But then I see her again, and all of those feelings just come rushing back and I fall in love with her all over again.’

She frowned. She really had no idea what to say to Charlie as she really didn’t know him that well. She wondered why he was telling her all of this, but she figured that no one else even bothered to ask. She looked into his handsome sunburnt and freckled face and had the sudden urge to kiss him.

‘Hermione?’ a voice came from the doorway. She looked up and saw Draco standing there. ‘Can I speak to you, please?’

Hermione nodded and kissed Charlie on the cheek. She stood up from the piano stool and followed her husband out of the room, leaving behind a lonely Charlie Weasley who once more turned to the piano and began playing what Hermione figured was his version of his requiem mass.