A/N: All characters and places belong to J.K. Rowling and affiliates. Only the plot line and OC's belong to me. *This chapter and chapter four are now edited and reformatted and soon the rest will follow.

This is the last chapter in the five-shot series! I've really enjoyed writing this one. It was a nice change from my normal stories and I liked being able to hear everyone's thoughts. I will most likely go back one more time and edited everything in a few weeks again for polishing details. Let me know what you think of the last chapter. Which one-shot was your favorite and why? Until next time, C.E.

In the kitchen of the Burrow, Molly Weasley bustled around happily as levitate three cups of tea outside to the porch. After the war, they had rebuilt the home, making it larger and adding on a sizable deck, overlooking the yard.

Since in the year following the war, she had done her best to patch up her family and herself from the losses. Making peace with the past was the final straw in allowing everything to settle.

The red headed woman had aged, the stress accumulating in her hips and face. Her laugh lines were more noticeable and her hair dulling, but she still looked, now more than ever, like a mother.

"It just seems so surreal you know," Hermione was saying as she came out. The sun was warm in the summer air and without the burden of war, the days were long and more enjoyable, brighter.

A sparkling engagement ring glittered on her finger.

"You'll get used to it," Minerva said with a grin, accepting Molly's cup with a nod of thanks. "But then the wedding will come and everything will become new again."

The Transfiguration Professor looked ageless. After surviving three wars, her thin figure and dark hair never seemed to fade, nor did her sharp green eyes or fair marbled skin. She wore lighter summer robes, navy blue and soft.

Molly smiled brightly. "I remember when Arthur first proposed. I was just beside myself. I think I alarmed the entire dorm. My parents had passed away two years previous and my brothers had graduated so I was at school alone. Arthur proposed in our seventh year, a few months before we graduated. We had been dating for years, on and off since we were Third Years if you could believe that. By the time I got around to owling my brother, the word had already spread to them and the rest of my family. I don't think they ever quite forgave me for that."

Minerva chuckled. "I still remember when they hexed poor young Randall Hemmingway for making you cry in your Second Year during the Winter Ball. Not to mention that awful joke they pulled on Abraxas Malfoy. It took me and Poppy hours to sort him right."

"That was the last boy I dated before I fell head over heels for Arthur."

"That was a beautiful wedding," she said with a smile.

"You were there?" Hermione asked, her always curious eyes sparkling. Minerva wrinkled her nose indignantly.

"Of course I was there!"

"I asked Minerva to sit in place for my mother," Molly explained giving the older woman's hand a squeeze.

"What was your wedding like?" Hermione asked dreamily. "I've begun to do some research and Ron's no help, of course."

"It was small," Molly began, smiling as the memories washed over her. "Just friends and family really. We held it on my parent's estates. They always had a beautiful garden, flowers everywhere during the summer. My brother both walked me down the isle and I wore my mother's old wedding dress." Molly sniffled and Hermione smiled broadly.

"How did you know he was the one?"

Molly pondered the question carefully before answering simply, "you never know really if they're the one. You just know that you're in love and you're willing to make it work at all costs."

She wiped her eyes and turned to Minerva who squeezed her hand comfortingly. There was a moment of comfortable silence before.

"How old were you when you knew you were in love, Minerva?" Hermione asked, turning to look at the older woman.

"Oh about sixteen I'd wager."

Hermione's eyes widened considerably and Minerva chuckled. "It was a different time then, I suppose," she said with a shrug. "Romances and marriages were a different thing then."

"And you knew you two were going to get married?" Hermione asked eagerly. Her long hair brushed her cheek as she leaned forward towards her mentor.

Minerva chuckled and leaned back in the seat coolly. "Of course not," she said smoothly, "there was a war going on. Grindelwald was terrorizing Muggleborns across the country. Nothing was for sure. All I knew was that I loved him and that he loved me. Nothing else seemed to matter much."

Hermione's heart fluttered.

"And then Tom Riddle came along after I started teaching at Hogwarts and we decided to keep the marriage a secret from the public. The wedding was small anyways and we simply never told anyone else. It was put under lock and key."

"I couldn't imagine keeping my marriage a secret for so long," Molly said shaking her head. "I had no idea you two were involved while I was in school."

Minerva shrugged, her green eyes marking the landscape around them as if the topic made her slightly uncomfortable. "I suppose it was always a secret, even before we were married. Albus and I had been a team since I was eleven years old. Even before we were courting, even before we were married, everything about our relationship, other than surface level interactions had to be hidden. I could no more live without him than he without me. If an unrecognized marriage was the only way to live, then that was the way it had to be. Albus was always much better at secrets than I was."

"Talking about me again, are you, Professor McGonagall?" a friendly voice greeted them as Albus Dumbledore appeared. He wore cheerful green robes and a content smile.

"You, Headmaster?" Minerva called, "Why would I be talking about you? It's not like you have any interesting secrets for me to share," she said innocently, her green eyes pointedly looking up at the bearded man. Hermione glanced at Molly and both woman bit back giggles.

"None at all, my dear," he said smoothly, sending the other two woman a wink. "Miss Hermione, I hear congratulations are in order."

Hermione blushed. "Thank you."

"And Mrs. Weasley, you look as lovely as ever."

"Albus Dumbledore, flirting with former students?" Molly said with an eyebrow raised cheekily.

"Why not? I married one, didn't I?" he asked, wrapping his arms around Minerva's waist. It was odd to see them outside of their boundaries at the Order and Hogwarts, away from the prying eyes and the tension of battle and violence.

Hermione smiled at their exchange and the level of pure peace they found with the touch of the each other. Finally she realized that was she wanted in her marriage with Ron.

Minerva smirked up at Albus, his eyes twinkling merrily down at his beloved as the sun began to set. Perhaps, for once, they could live happily ever after.