A/N: Sorry for the delay. Just as the character below, I thought and thought and thought, and decided it really did end where it did.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

3 July 2053

"That's it?" the girl exclaimed.

"Now Emily," her mother replied, "what more did you want?"

"Em's right Mum," the boy replied. "It just ends right there?"

"John, your Gran decided there was just right. She wrote this book a long time ago and agonized over the ending and decided in the end that's where it should end."

"But what happened after?" Amy, the youngest of the three asked. "Did they live happily ever after?"

"What do you think, Amy?" the mother asked.

"I hope so, but it doesn't say!" the littlest pouted.

"Would it help if I told you this story is true?"

"It is?" the three asked.

Their mother nodded. "It's the story about your Gran and Gramps. It was the first book you Gran wrote when she became an author. Do you think they had a happily ever after, Amy?"

"Yeah."

"That's real?" Emily asked in shock. "But it's so weird! I mean they lose each other for years, there're kids he doesn't know about and then they meet thousands of miles from their real homes by pure accident and are married a month later? Love doesn't work like that does it?"

"It did for them," their mother said. "But remember, they had been in love for a long time before but for various reasons never told the other. Then all that other stuff happened so that when they were finally ready, they never heard from each other again for a long time."

"But what happened after?" Emily asked. "Did they go on their honeymoon? Where did he take her? Was it wonderful?"

"Who cares?" John complained. "I want to know if that Ginny person snuffed it! Maybe she got run over by a bus. Better yet, maybe that giant tossed her to the dragons!"

"John," his mother said, "the villain doesn't always have to die."

"Okay then, how about a real nasty disease that makes her bald and ugly!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Okay then. Yes, they went on their honeymoon, Emily. That was one of the reasons Gran stopped it right there. She said it was wonderful, but also very private and felt she really should just leave it alone. I mean, the whole idea was how they lost each other and found each other again. The after she left to the readers to imagine for themselves. But they didn't go right away."

"Why not?" Emily asked.

"Because Harry's birthday was two days after the wedding. He had never celebrated birthdays with your Aunt Luna or Uncle Harry before and they had never been there for his. He had missed years of Grandma Hermione's birthdays and Christmas and all that and he was never going to miss them again. So they stayed at the Manor and had a family party for Harry. Great-gran Rose, Daphne and your Uncle Teddy were there as well. The next day, they went on their honeymoon but it was only for three days."

"Why?" Emily asked.

"Because your Dad promised the kids they would go see a baseball game in St. Louis and go as a family for two weeks in Disney World before the school started."

"Where'd they go?" Emily asked.

"Well, there was one place in Europe Grandma Hermione had never been to that she had always wanted to see. Granddad Harry had been there, but liked it too. So he surprised her. He made her put on a blindfold when they went to the International Portal and she couldn't take it off until they stepped through."

"Where?" Emily pleaded.

"Rome."

"Where's that?" Amy asked.

"It's in Italy, stupid," John replied.

"I'M NOT STUPID!"

"John, if you can't say something nice," the boy's mother began.

"Sorry," the boy said.

"What'd they do?" Emily asked.

"Well, they walked around a bit, but Grandma Hermione wasn't always feeling well because of her babies. They still saw a lot, held hands all the time and kissed a lot…"

"GROSS!" the boy said.

"One day you might not think so," the mother teased.

"Doubt it. Okay, so what about that Ginny person? Did she snuff it? Did she try and ruin their trip and get hexed into oblivion by Granddad? Or maybe it was her brother who did it?"

"She didn't snuff it, John," the mother said. "She's still alive as far as I know."

"Well, that's no fun. What happened?"

"She was playing the World Cup in Lisbon at the time. Now as I understand it, she read about the wedding in the paper the day Harry and Hermione left for Rome and on her day off went back to England to her Mum to yell about how this couldn't happen and stuff, except her Mum was not at home and she didn't know where anyone else lived. Harry and Hermione left from Rome and went straight to St. Louis where Rose and the kids were waiting, so there was no way Ginny could run into them even if she could have found out where they lived. She went back to her team.

"In the finals something happened. Ginny had a great career and had an uncanny record of never getting hit by a bludger or seriously injured. England was playing Brazil for the Cup. She scored several goals, then got hit in the head by a bludger, fell something like ten meters or more and never got up again."

"See!" the boy said, "she snuffed it!"

"No, but she was hurt real bad. Some people say she was distracted by the wedding. Maybe. But she was in hospital for a long time and for a while they weren't sure if she would ever walk again. She would, but her Quidditch career was over."

"Did England win anyway?" John asked.

"You know your cousin Edward would know."

"Mum!"

"No, they lost."

"Oh. So what happened to her."

"She left England," the woman said. "No one saw or heard from her in years. She turned up about fifteen years later at her parents' home with a husband and three children and seemed happy enough. She was living in New Zealand, I think. She stayed for a week, although not many visited. We didn't. Then she left and hasn't been seen since."

"Boring," the boy complained.

"So what happened next?" Amy asked.

"She wasn't seen again," the mother said.

"That's not what I meant! I meant with Gran and Granddad."

"Well, they came back from their holiday with the kids and the kids started school and Granddad went back to Special Operations and Major Crimes and Gran began working at Pak-Riley London."

"Oh come on, Mum!" Emily moaned.

"Fine. In March 2007, your Uncle Sirius was born. A few months later, Granddad Harry became head of his Department and stayed in that job for a long time until he retired. The Ministry kept trying to promote him, but he refused. He never needed the money and liked his job so he stayed where he was at. Mum was doing really well at Pak-Riley, but when your Aunt Lily and Uncle James were born in December 2008, she quit."

"Why?"

"Because she knew she was going to have more babies and she had done the working Mum thing with babies before and decided she wanted to do something else. She took care of us, but was also involved in House Elf Rights and began writing her books, eventually making more writing than she ever did working at Pak-Riley.

"Aunt Emily…"

"Who I'm named after," Emily said.

"That's right," the mother replied, "well she was born in September 2010. Uncle Neville was born in June 2012. Uncle Ron and Aunt Cynthia were born in April 2014 and I was born in January 2016."

"And named Hermione," Amy said.

Hermione nodded. "Mum and Dad thought it made sense. Their first born was named Harry after his dad and I was last. You know Gran loves her books and Harry and I were the bookends."

"And then what?" Amy asked.

"Well, when I was seven, Dad retired from his job with the Ministry and became the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts. He taught all of us except your Grand Aunt Daphne, Uncle Teddy, Uncle Harry and Aunt Luna as they had all finished by the time he started. Now you know Uncle Teddy now has Granddad's old job at Hogwarts and Granddad's Headmaster."

"And he won't let you get away with nothing," Emily complained.

"And he didn't when I was there either," Hermione agreed with a laugh.

"So all this happened 'cause they ran into each other at a restaurant?" John asked.

"Dad said he always had two kinds of luck in life, bad and good. For a long time it seemed it was bad luck. He had to fight in a war when he was not much older than you, John. He lost friends. He saw them die. He let his Hermione go and married the wrong woman. But after his breakfast in New York with her back in 2006, he says he has had nothing but good luck. We should all be so lucky."

"Hermione Dear?" a voice called and she saw her husband. "You lot ready?"

"We are."

"Do we have to go?" John asked.

"Yes we do," Hermione said. "We came have way around the world to be with Grandmum when she says goodbye."

"I guess," the kid sulked.

A large crowd had seemed to gather at the graveyard overlooking the Indian Ocean. From a distance, one would not know it was just the immediate family. Hermione Jane Potter was the oldest person present and the only one who had ever been here before, or at least the only one who remembered. She and her husband of forty-seven years led the procession followed by her sister Daphne and her husband of thirty years, their children, grandchildren and even a few babies, their great-grandchildren. Hermione carried a small urn in her arms as her Harry had an arm around her shoulder. They walked up to a single gravestone that seemed even after all this time to stand apart from the others. Hermione and the others looked at it.

WENDELL WILKENS
14 NOVEMBER 1949 – 19 JUNE 1999

Loving Father & Husband

Little Princess: if you are reading
this, remember I will love you
always … Daddy

"Hello Daddy," Hermione said. "It's been a long time. The last time I was here …" her voice hitched slightly "… I thought I was so alone. I thought it was my fault you died before I could say goodbye and my fault you were buried under another name. I was scared. I was single. I was pregnant. I thought my life was ruined. But Mum was there for me. She was there through everything. She was there when my babies were born. She was there the day I again found the love of my life and the father of all my babies. She was there the day we married and was with us every step of our journey. And I tried to be there for her to make up for those years when I was not there with you two or for you. I was there to be a big sister to Daphne and I hope I did a good job."

"She did, Daddy," the other older women said.

"Well, I'm back again, Daddy. You family is here to say goodbye to Mum who passed away two weeks ago back home in Britain. She was ninety-eight and had a full life. She asked us to bring her back to you so she can rest beside the sea where you and she were happy. I hope you can see the wonderful family she raised. You have fifteen grandchildren. They are all here today with their husbands and wives and their forty-five children and three grandchildren. Mum was proud of all of us. Daphne and I are proud of all of them. You can rest easy now, Daddy. Daphne and I know you will always love us just as we will always love our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You can rest easy now, Daddy. We've brought your Rosie home to you."

Hermione raised her wand and made a swishing motion and the urn disappeared into the ground. Then she and Daphne together pointed their wands at the headstone. There was a flash of light, and it changed. There was a new inscription:

Robert Alan Granger
14 November 1949 – 19 June 1999

Loving Father & Husband

Little Princess: if you are reading
this, remember I will love you
always … Daddy

The stone had expanded and there was another inscription beside the first:

Rosalyn Marie Granger
12 December 1954 – 16 June 2053

Loving Wife, Mother & Friend

For Love Is Truly Eternal … Mummy.

"Goodbye, Mum," Hermione said. "One day we shall see each other again. Goodbye Daddy. Keep Mum happy until we join you."

She stepped back and watched as the rest of the family said their goodbye's in turn.