A/N: Hi, guys. Been a long time, hasn't it? I think I've been rather reluctant to post this, the last chapter of 'Long Time Gone.' I was rather pissy in my last author's note, wasn't I? I'm sorry about that and I'll attribute that to the low amount of reviews last chapter. So, this is it. Hope you enjoy it!
"Here, drink this."
"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley," I insisted.
"Of course you are, Hermione, dear, but this will soothe you. Trust me; drink it."
I gulped down the scalding hot broth Mrs. Weasley was offering me. I actually did feel much better after taking it.
"All right, Mrs. Weasley, I'll admit it. You are the best mother in the world."
"Seven kids, Hermione. I feel so badly about you getting sick. I'm the one who let you stay out in the rain like that."
"Well, Ron--" I stopped. Should I really tell her I was sick because I had been standing out in the rain snogging her son?
"Needs to learn that kissing in the rain always results in a cold," she said knowledgably.
I turned red. "Oh."
"Don't worry, darling. I always knew he'd choose you."
I turned an even darker shade of red. "Don't say that, Mrs. Weasley."
"Why wouldn't I? Any other views expressed would be a lie. You two used to make Arthur and I laugh when you were younger—bickering constantly. Especially when Ron would bring up Viktor Krum." She laughed to herself again.
She stopped laughing and silence hung in the air. "May I ask you something?" I began cautiously.
"Certainly."
"Why—why were you ok with Ron and I having a child together? I thought you'd be sort of angry about it…as we weren't married and everything."
"Hermione, how could I have possibly been angry about it when I looked into Baker's eyes? Those intense blue spheres—walking replica of my son. I could've never been mad to begin with. Disappointed? Maybe for a moment. But I care about the two of you too much. I know you make each other happy."
"I'm sorry if we disappointed you."
"I'm not sure it's me who was disappointed as much as you were."
"Me?"
"You can accept it, Hermione. It's ok. Stop being ashamed. You may have a child—a wonderful child at that—but you are still a powerful, brave womanyou make your own decisions. You support yourself. You are the woman I'd like to see my son marry. And I'm not saying that because of Baker at all."
She turned away and continued to bustle about the room. "I've cleaned your clothes for you." She turned back around. "Now, darling, why are you crying?"
"I have been ashamed! Why was I so ashamed?"
"Are you ashamed anymore?"
I shook my head. She nodded, seeming satisfied. I pulled myself out of the bed and walked over to where she was folding the robes. I began folding with her. There, we sat in silence, two mothers extremely proud of our children.
I felt a heavy weight in one of my robes.
I stuck my hand in the pocket. I pulled out the tiny extravagant mirror I had received from Szechznik in the Department of Mysteries.
"That's beautiful, Hermione. Where did you get that?"
I twirled it in my fingers. "Er—nowhere."
I ran my fingers over the intricate design of the mirror again. "Here, these are Ginny's," Mrs. Weasley said. She walked out of the room, carrying a load of robes.
I looked up at the wardrobe sitting in my room. I smiled into it. There was something I hadn't seen in a long time—shining eyes, bright red cheeks. I looked, dare I say it, happy.
I looked back into the beautiful mirror. What the hell was the matter with it? I didn't look happy at all. I looked pale, sad, and there was absolutely no shine in my eye. And there was that stupid shorter hair! How could such a beautiful mirror show such an ugly reflection?
I checked in the wardrobe—nope, I looked the same.
I shook my head and propped the mirror on my wardrobe. It was, after all, a nice mirror.
"Baker, could you go play with Ginny while I talk to Daddy?" I asked sweetly.
She nodded and dashed over to where Harry and Ginny were sitting on the bench together, talking.
"What was that about?" Ron asked, gazing curiously over at me, eyes twinkling.
"This," I said, sticking my hand in his.
His eyes twinkled even more, looking mischievous. "You're such a teenager," he teased.
"Am I?"
"Come over here," Ron whispered, pulling my hand across the field. He pulled me behind Ginny's old playhouse far out near the woods surrounding their house.
"You're like an overgrown first grader," I chided, playing with a strand of hair in his face.
"That you love?"
"That I love."
I don't think I had ever been so in love in my life. The past five weeks, I had hardly spent a moment away from Ron, now my boyfriend. This was one of the rare moments when it was just the two of us, feeling the joy of being near each other. We didn't usually spend too many of these moments talking.
Speaking of…
He gently pushed my back into the wall and pressed his lips to mine. These were the moments I especially enjoyed. His soft lips pressing against mine, his fingers tickling the back of my neck.
"Hey, stop!" I said, pulling at his fingertips.
"What? You know you love it."
What was he, psychic?
"So, what. You like to do it and I don't want to give you that pleasure."
"I like this too," he said, kissing me again.
I pushed him away. "Then, you had better stop right now!"
He intertwined his hands in mine. "I have to work tomorrow."
"I figured. I do too."
Another kiss. "I wish you wouldn't. You worry yourself to death when you do."
He ran a finger across my face and through my thick hair. "How much longer do you think you'll have to work before you ever figure this all out?"
He sighed; he knew exactly what this was. "Could be months; more likely years."
"I couldn't stand for you to be working that hard for that long. I'd go crazy."
"We'll figure it out, don't worry."
"I won't."
He snorted. "Sure."
I hit him in his arm. "Shut up and kiss me."
"Happily."
The Weasleys, Harry, and I shuffled around the kitchen of Ginny's flat, putting away dishes and cleaning up.
I ran into Ginny as I took a plate over to the sink.
"Hermione, would you eat this?" George Weasley asked me seriously, cornering me against the counter.
"If you offered it to me, never," I said, staring at the cake in his hand.
"You're right," he nodded, "It looks too suspicious to just give to somebody. Need to make it look less conspicuous. Fred, no go on the chocolate cake."
Fred nodded. "Right, maybe we should go red velvet."
"Hermione?"
I nodded. George looked back toward his twin brother. "Go for it," he said.
"Right."
George looked back at me. "Hermione, you know how very pregnant Alicia is, right?"
"Yeah."
"She asked for a pickled toad yesterday. Should I let her have it?"
"Shouldn't she have had the baby by now?"
George shrugged. "You're missing the point, Hermione. Should I or should I not give that slightly mad pregnant woman a pickled toad?"
"Give her what she wants."
"Right-o!"
I turned away, laughing.
I saw Harry brush past Ginny, and they both turned a dark shade of red. They had broken up again a couple of weeks ago. It was hard to see them fighting as much as they had been recently.
I was distracted from my friends' star-crossed romance by Baker running through the room. "Uncle Geowge, Uncle George!" she yelled, pronouncing hard. "I want some cake."
"Right, Fred, it works on three-year-olds." He laid down the plate and scooped up Baker in his arms. He turned her upside down, hanging her by her feet.
"Stop!" she yelled, banging on his legs. "AH!" she giggled.
He swung her for a moment and decided on putting her down, receiving a hard look from me. All of Ron's brothers seemed to be taking well to being uncles. Not that I would've expected anything less from the wonderful family that was the Weasleys.
"I think it's Baker's bed time," a voice announced from the other side of the room. My mouth dropped, and I looked over to stare at…
"Ron?"
He shrugged. "It is."
"But, Daddy!"
"Bed," he repeated.
"I'll take her," I said, winking at Ron, grabbing Baker's hand, and leading her to her bedroom in the back.
She changed clothes in silence and slid down under her covers, smiling smugly. She was enjoying picking out her own clothes, whether they matched or not.
I walked over to kiss her and blow out her candle. She suddenly grabbed my hand though. "Lay down with me for a minute, Mummy. Please."
I smiled, and lied down next to her. She put her arms around my neck.
"I love you, Mummy."
"I love you, too."
"Do you love Daddy?"
I was quiet for a moment. "I don't know, Bake."
I had used that stupid nickname. Ron finally got it in my head.
"I love him."
"I know you do."
"He kissed you one day."
"Well…that was…"
I stopped talking, but Baker didn't prompt for a further answer. She was quiet for so long, I thought she had gone to sleep.
"I saw you, Mummy," she whispered.
"What?"
"I was…somwhewe else. And you walked by me. You were clicking; you never click here, not like those girls dressed really fancy."
I had no idea what she was talking about. She began playing with my hair.
"And you had short hair. It wasn't as pretty. You weren't happy like you are now, either."
"That was just a dream, Baker," I concluded. "Don't worry about it."
"Was it a dream when that man came and took me from this bed?"
I couldn't believe it; she had never talked about that before.
"He took me, and he said, 'We'll be watching you now,' and he took me away. What if he comes back, Mummy?"
I could feel myself crying.
"He said he'd always be there."
"He won't come back," I whispered in the most assuring voice as I could manage. "Daddy and Uncle Harry are going to make sure of that."
"That's not what he said. He said I should forget about them; they had never known how to help anyway."
"He lied."
"He said I had pwetty haiw." I could hear her voice getting nervous; it made her miss more of her r's.
"He touched it. He said he would send me away for a while and he'd be back to get me. He told me to ignowe the mean people, because some of them wewe bad wizawds who wewe twying to look like you and Daddy."
"What? Now, Baker, slow down. Who was trying to look like me and Daddy?"
She was starting to cry too. "I don't wemembew. I'm sowwy, Mummy, I shouldn't have told you."
"No, Baker," I said, holding her tightly. "It's fine. I'm glad you told me."
We both jumped as the door opened. Ron walked in, giving us a forced grin. I had a feeling he had been listening for a few minutes.
"How are my two favorite girls?"
Baker cheered immediately. "Daddy! Did you come to tell me 'night?"
"Sure did," he said, bending down and planting a kiss on my forehead and then Baker's. Baker grinned between the two of us.
He whispered over Baker's head. "I think I'm going to go, honey. I have to get up early in the morning."
Honey…wasn't that cute?
Baker had heard him too. "Go! No, Daddy, you can't go!" She pulled on his arm. "Lay down with me for a minute."
He stared into her eyes for a moment, and then had to oblige. He lay on Baker's other side.
"We're the perfect family," she muttered.
Depending on your opinion of perfect, I guess. In my eyes, we were pretty perfect.
Baker's breath suddenly slowed and she quit talking. I knew her well enough to know she had fallen asleep.
I began to stare at Ron, and caught him staring at our daughter.
He looked up at me and grinned.
He found my hand under Baker's pillow and took it in his. "I love you," he mouthed.
"I love you back," I returned.
We all fell asleep on the bed in peaceful bliss.
A/N: Well, it's over. The first story I ever finished. It has been so awesome working on it and I thank you guys so much for reading it. Leave me one last review please, tell me what you think of this chapter and of the overall story. Most importantly, keep your eyes open in the next couple of weeks for the sequel, 'A Moment Ago.' It should be fun!
Anyway, I know it's been forever and a day since I gave my handy dandy shoutouts, and I promise they'll be back next story, but first, I want to make a couple of especially special shoutouts to people who've kept this story afloat.
The hugest shoutout in the world goes to my awesome beta and one of the most hilarious people who I've ever received an email from, Cheese riot. She's been so awesome, ever since the first day she asked to be my beta. I love you, Riki!
The next one is for some of the greatest reviewers. Some people's reviews just imprint themselves into your mind, so these are like hall-of-fame reviewers. PiNaYPeAcHiE, I think you've reviewed almost every chapter from the beginning, and that is awesome. I've loved every review I've gotten from you! Huge hugs! Ilikechicken gets a huge special shoutout for getting my milk joke and telling me it was funny…and just, who doesn't love chicken lovers? Chicken rape—bad for the economy, HA! Tiffany-45 always leaves me insightful reviews and I love getting them. They make me have hope that someone out there still gets it…hmm. MPPSexxySiriusJamesRemus, though it's been awhile since I've seen you, you've always been an awesome reviewer who I think has taken the time to review more than one of my stories—all the more reason to love! Two more… seekerpeeker, who took almost a whole day to read the whole thing and leave a review for every chappie…that's awesome! But, come back! And one last one to emilyshka, who gave me a huge confidence boost right when I needed it.
So, thanks. Thanks to every one who opened this story, who read a chapter, who reads it religiously, or who ever reviewed. Thanks to the people who gave Ron/Hermione a chance even though it's not your favorite pairing. And thanks for reviewing! The reviews mean the world to me. And I thank you so much for them. Big hugs and kisses!
Love ya! LauriAnn