Chocolate Enchantment

Epilogue

Epilogue

A warm breeze blew across Hermione's face as she sat on the grass outside Prince Manor watching butterflies and bees flit from bloom to bloom. She had only finished her N.E.W.T.s a week earlier, and the school year had officially finished the previous day. After the big battle, Professor McGonagall had hurried to fill vacancies in the teaching staff and pushed to open the school by November first. While holidays had been short—they only took three days off for Christmas and two for Easter— and testing was two weeks later than usual, they had managed to pack nearly all the study of a regular school year into the shortened terms.

Arrangements were made for students like herself who had been married after the announcement of the school's closure the previous spring, and Hermione had lived at home and Flooed over to the school every day for classes—at least until her baby was born in early April. After three weeks off, she started up again part time to prepare for her tests. Neville Longbottom and Lavender Brown, among others, had married the previous summer, and they also Flooed in for classes every day. Ron and Harry had stayed in the dorms, grateful to have something as normal as school to return to, even if Harry found it hard to deal with the upswing in attention he received during the first few weeks.

Now Hermione watched Harry switching back and forth between his regular form and that of his Animagus as he tried to take Sophie's attention from Ron, who was flying around as a dragon, shooting fire into the air. The two boys doted on her daughter, a fact Hermione found herself constantly surprised over.

Ron landed on the ground nearby, then changed back into himself and walked over, sitting beside her. "Two weeks of bliss before I start Quidditch practice," he said. Only a few weeks earlier, he had been scouted by the Wimbourne Wasps to be their keeper. The only way it could have been better was if it had been the Chudley Cannons, his favorite Quidditch team ever.

"Glad to hear you aren't going to work yourself too hard in the meantime. Not going over to the shop any, are you?" Hermione asked.

"No way. What do I need with their peanuts when I'm getting so much more playing games?" He grinned, then scooped up Capuchin Harry and began running away with him and threatening to throw him in the fountain. Harry changed back and took Ron down with him on the grass not far from the fountain. It was a moment of frivolity that Hermione was grateful to see. During the summer and well into the winter, things had been so difficult, first with the fight ahead of them, and then dealing with the aftermath. It was good to see them acting like teenaged boys sometimes.

Another reason it had been a difficult winter and spring for Hermione was Ron took his time coming around again after learning about her soul mate's identity. Though she had seen signs of his relenting, it wasn't until Hermione brought her new baby to show off to everybody the Sunday before resuming classes in late April that things changed. Ron had sidled over behind the group, then slowly worked his way up through the crowd. Before Hermione knew it, he was holding little Sophie and cooing at her. From that day forward, things began to improve.

It probably helped that Severus never returned to teaching. Though Professor McGonagall had offered him the Defense job again, he had been content not to continue his old life. Too many parents would have caused a fuss if he had taken the job, regardless of whether the courts found him innocent or not, and as teaching had never been his favorite thing, he decided not to resume the profession.

As Hermione had reviewed the household accounts, she realized that there were some residuals that hadn't been accounted for in his first perusal. Careful to use their resources wisely, she and Severus had decided to do research at home, rather than taking regular jobs. One of Severus's patents had already been purchased by a major potions supplier, and with the sale of his home on Spinner's End, which he had always hated anyway, Hermione saw a bright future for them.