Rose Among the Thorns

Chapter 28

A light breeze ruffled the pages of Hermione's book as she lay reading in the sand, oblivious to the laughter around her. The entire Weasley family had taken a holiday to the sea, much to the delight of the children. Various sandcastles and kites were being built and flown, and Hermione had brushed sand from her book that had been thrown there by small running feet too many times to count. She looked up to see her son, David, giggling as George dipped his toes into the waves as they washed onto the sand. A tall shadow fell across her, and she looked up to see Harry standing over her.

"You are the only person I know who would ever dream of bringing A History of Troll Wars to the beach," he said, gesturing at her book.

"It's interesting," she protested. "The 'War for Oogbat's Ear,' was one of the first instances that trolls..."

"How about filling me in another time?" Harry said genially. "We're getting a football game started, if you want to join us."

Hermione scoffed. "The last time I played football was Dean's birthday five years ago. Remember? I was so bad that I missed the ball by a foot and fell into his mother's peonies."

Harry laughed. "I'd completely forgotten about that. Ron said you looked like..." he cut off suddenly and glanced at Hermione. "Sorry," he said. "I wasn't thinking."

Hermione smiled gently. "Talking about Ron doesn't bother me anymore. Much as I miss him, talking about him makes me feel a little better about it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the children play in the sand.

"Charlie's doing good with David," Harry remarked, gesturing at Hermione's husband and son.

Hermione smiled fondly. "He's brilliant with David. I have to pry him away from Charlie to feed him."

"So you and Charlie are doing well?" Harry asked casually.

"Charlie and I are..." she hesitated.

"I thought you were seemed happier," Harry said, furrowing his brows.

"We are, now that I've stopped being such a fool," she said, with a slightly bitter tinge to her voice. "And don't try and make me feel better about how badly I treated him," she added, as Harry opened his mouth to speak. "It won't help."

"I wasn't going to," Harry said. "I was just going to say that I'm glad that you and Charlie are working through it."

"Sorry," Hermione apologized. "I'm still a little touchy about it."

"It's fine, I understand," Harry said. "I just want to make sure you're happy."

Hermione sat quietly for a few moments. "I am," she said. "I have a beautiful son, and a husband...I love." She paused. "And I do love him," she added. "These past few months I've realized that even though our relationship hasn't been as intense as Ron and mine's, I still love Charlie as much as I loved Ron, and sometimes I think even more."

She turned and looked at Harry. "No matter what I've done to him, Charlie has loved me unconditionally. It took me a long time to realize that, and I think its made me love him even more."

Harry smiled broadly at her. "I'm so happy for you," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted as Fred ran towards them, kicking sand everywhere.

"Neville!" Fred shouted, running past them. "What are you doing here?"

A rather disheveled Neville Longbottom, dressed in a suit and robes, came dashing toward them, a Daily Prophet clutched in his hand.

"What is it, Neville?" Ginny asked, as Neville bent double, breathing heavily.

"Give him some room," Bill advised.

"It's all over," Neville breathed heavily.

"What's all over?" Harry asked. "What do you mean?"

Neville, still heaving, thrust the newspaper into Harry's hands.

Harry smoothed the paper out and adjusted his glasses. "The Minister of Magic Kingsley Shackelbolt is pleased to announce that the Wizengamot's Marriage Law Number One has been overturned," he read, looking up at the Weasleys in shock when he finished the sentence.

"Keep reading!" Mrs. Weasley said impatiently.

Harry cleared his throat. "As Britain's wizarding population is well aware, Marriage Law Number One was enacted to promote the intermarriage of so called 'pureblood' and 'muggle-born' witches and wizards in order to strengthen and repopulate the magical community after the recent war."

"And look at what a bloody good idea that was," Fred muttered.

"Shut it!" Ginny said.

"Am I wrong about something?" Fred asked. "It was about the stupidest idea the Wizengamot's come up with, and..."

"After several weeks of deliberation," George continued, reading over Harry's shoulder. "The Wizengamot has moved to abolish the law, effective immediately."

The Weasley family let out a collective cheer.

Over the laughter and merriment, George read, "Any witches or wizards affected by the law and desiring to annul their marriage may do so by applying to the Ministry's Department of Magical Matrimony and Progeny..." George trailed off.

Hermione instinctively looked at Charlie, who avoided her gaze.

While the Weasley family peppered Neville with questions, Charlie wandered away.

Hermione tried to follow him, but was mobbed by Fleur and Penny.

Finally excusing herself, she looked down the beach, but Charlie was already far down the beach. She began walking after him, then broke into a run. She pelted after him, running as fast as she could.

"Charlie!" she called after him. "Charlie, wait!"

He turned around just as she caught up with him.

"Charlie," she gasped, trying to catch her breath.

"Good news, isn't it?" he asked. "It'll make a lot of people happy."

"I don't care," she said.

Charlie looked at her. "They repealed the marriage law!" he protested.

"I don't care," Hermione said again. "I want to be with you."

Charlie stood silently, staring at her.

"I don't want anyone else," Hermione told him. "I want you."

He looked at her, dumbfounded. "You don't want a divorce?"

"No!" she exclaimed, brushing the hair from her face. "I want to be with you. If you'll have me," she added.

Charlie grabbed Hermione around her waist and spun around, letting out a loud whoop.

"That's a yes?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"It's definitely a yes," Charlie whispered. He kissed her hard on the mouth. When they parted, Hermione took his hand in hers and they walked back down the beach.

"I've learned something since Ron died," she told Charlie.

"What is that?" he asked.

"I've finally figured out that I can't question my life, why Ron died, why we got married, why I'm going down the path I'm on. I've realized that I can't worry about the life I could have had, I have to live the life I've been given."

Charlie smiled and buried his face in Hermione's hair.

"Looks like we've found the rose among all of the thorns," he said.

They walked, hand in hand, back toward their son, and their new life together, never looking back again.

The End

Notes: ok, so then end might be a little sappy, but I'm not good at writing endings. I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who has stuck with this for two years(?! Has it taken two years of my life to write this?). And especially for all of the reviews, positive and negative. Feedback from you guys means so much to me (not being mushy) and I have learned a lot about writing longer stories from this. Like updating more than once every 6 months :p. But anyways, thanks for all of the reviews and support, it means a lot.