Big Brother is Listening to You

Chapter 25 - Epilogue

'And the winner of the second series of Listen-In is…Ginny Weasley!'

Harry grinned and cheered with everybody else. He was in a large hall in the Ministry and the radio had been spelled so that it was loud enough to be heard throughout the hall. It had been one year since Daphne had won the show and it had been so popular that it had been renewed for a second series. It had gotten bigger and better though, because the production team had learned from the mistakes of series one. Harry knew Ginny would win from very early on because he had obsessively listened to the show, in fact Daphne was sure he had developed a slight addiction to it. Ginny had suffered an injury that had effectively ended her Quidditch career and within weeks of it she had broken up with Oliver too. She had gone on the show to escape just like Harry had, and he had really been rooting for her.

As an added bonus the production team had invited most of the contestants from series one to the series two post-show party. Although they were a bit biffed that they hadn't gotten a post-show party their own series. Therefore, everybody who had been in series two and who had been evicted were here, as well as most the former housemates from series one. The exceptions were Romilda, for obvious reasons, and Oliver, probably because he couldn't bear to watch the girl he had broken up with win the show.

'I'm glad Gin won,' Harry said cheerfully as he sat back down at the large circular table where himself, Daphne, Draco and Gabrielle were currently gathered.

'So am I,' Daphne said thoughtfully, 'although I was meaning to ask, have you guys had a chance to catch up with anyone here tonight?'

'I chatted to a few people,' Harry said, 'most of them haven't changed. I mean they're still doing the exact same jobs as before, but Luna is jetting all around the world these days with Rolf.'

'I know we hardly see her,' Daphne said with a slightly sad smile, 'but she's happy at least.'

'And so is she,' Gabrielle said with a soft smile as she glanced over at Astoria who was dancing with Theo a short distance away.

'Well she's a stay at home Mother,' Daphne said with a smile, 'that's all she ever wanted. Personally I think I'd get bored, but Tori's happy.'

'And so is Theo because he got my promotion,' Draco said irritably.

'You're still bitter about that?' Harry asked, 'it was like 3 months ago.'

'It was still my promotion,' Draco said with a frown, 'I mean assistant head of the DMLE!'

'One of four assistant heads Draco,' Gabrielle pointed out, 'it's not a massive promotion and you heard what your boss said, you're on track to do really in the Wizengamot which pays far better.'

'She's right, stop being picky,' Daphne said with a raised eyebrow.

'As much as gossiping is fun, we should be talking about Ginny,' Gabrielle reminded them, 'since she just won the show.'

'She was entertaining,' Draco said grudgingly, 'although I can't believe she started dating Blaise Zabini in there.'

Hermione snorted in amusement as she joined their table, 'I'm more surprised she slept with him on a show with listening charms everywhere but there you go.'

'I'm not,' Harry said, 'She always was outgoing.'

'And I bet she also wanted to piss Oliver off,' Daphne added with a smirk.

'I'm pretty sure it worked,' Gabrielle chuckled, 'since he didn't have the balls to show up here tonight.'

'Yeah that's true enough. But you two really can't talk,' Draco said with an amused grin.

'Hey, we didn't have sex on the show!' Daphne objected.

'No, you just couldn't abide by the rules of that marriage contract of Daphne's,' Hermione grinned, 'how long did you last in the real world again? A weekend?'

'3 days,' Harry said with a sheepish grin, 'hey it was his fault, he plied us with booze at his unofficial after party,' he nudged his head in Draco's direction.

'Are you saying I'm the reason you two are married?' Draco chortled.

'Well, you pretty much are,' Daphne agreed with a smirk.

Harry laughed and put his arm around Daphne, 'Hey it was going to happen at some point anyway. It just happened like 4 months to a year earlier than I had planned.'

'You'd planned it already?' Gabrielle chuckled.

'I had a lot of time to think about things in that house,' Harry said simply, 'and I knew anyway, I knew right away with Daphne.'

'Oh Godric, I think I'm going to throw up,' Hermione joked.

Harry rolled his eyes, 'Hey it will be you and Charlie soon!'

'He'd have to propose first,' Hermione pointed out, 'and he's not exactly been in a hurry to do that, has he?'

'You make a good point,' Draco said with a smirk.

'I'm sure he'll get there Hermione,' Gabrielle said, 'he's just a little bit slow on the uptake. He probably hasn't been getting the hints.'

'Or he's ignoring them because he's scared of commitment and marriage,' Draco said.

Gabrielle glared at him, 'Draco, that's not exactly helping anyone is it?'

'Someone has to tell her the harsh truth,' Draco shrugged.

Hermione rolled her eyes, 'Yeah thanks a lot for that Malfoy.'

Harry shook his head at the exchange, 'It's none of your business anyway Draco, focus on your own wedding yeah?'

Gabrielle scoffed, 'His own wedding? Do you know that the only things he has done is pick his groomsmen and what they are wearing and told me that there can't be any French food because he hates it, and that he wants a carrot cake for the wedding cake.'

'Carrot cake?' Daphne asked with an upturned nose, 'why?'

'Because it's my favourite,' Draco said defensively.

'Yeah but your guests have got to eat it,' Hermione pointed out, 'nobody likes carrot cake.'

Harry nodded, 'It has nuts and carrot in it.'

'You uncultured swines,' Draco sighed, 'well I will enjoy my carrot cake and caviar-'

'Are you fucking serious?' Harry interrupted, 'if that's the menu I'm not coming.'

'That'll be some wedding if the best man doesn't show up,' Daphne snorted in amusement.

Draco rolled his eyes, 'Fine, I'll concede with the carrot cake but I'm insisting on caviar-'

'- but it is disgusting Draco,' Gabrielle said irritably.

'Can I make a suggestion?' Hermione asked in amusement, 'you both have boatloads of money. So why don't you just do a multiple choice menu? Gabby, you can have a select French menu and Draco can have whatever weird crap he wants to eat, that way everyone is happy.'

'Weird crap?' Draco scoffed, 'Granger, you have no taste at all. Caviar is a delicacy-'

'It's disgusting,' Gabrielle said again.

'Well I think eating the legs of frogs and slimy snails that crawl all over your garden is disgusting,' Draco countered.

'Escargot is a delicacy, Draco!' Gabrielle exclaimed.

'Oh Salazar,' Daphne breathed, 'this wedding is going to be a brawl.'

'Maybe that's why he asked the Assistant Head Auror to be Best Man,' Harry whispered as Draco and Gabrielle bickered on.

'You never know, with the size of this wedding and the fact half of wizarding France is coming it might cause war to break out between France and England again,' Hermione joked.

'Oh alright!' Draco said, effectively ending whatever argument he and Gabrielle had been having. Their spats had been quite common since they had gotten engaged 3 months ago. They had a great relationship and as Daphne had said to Harry when he initially voiced his concern about their constant arguing, it couldn't be an easy thing trying to arrange a wedding that fit into two different cultures.

Gabrielle shook her head in disbelief at Daphne as Charlie walked over to the table and sat down next to Hermione with a grin on his face, 'Great for Gin eh?'

'Fantastic,' Hermione said with a smile, 'we're all really pleased for her.'

'Why are those two huffing in the corner then?' Charlie asked in amusement.

'Conflict of cultures for the wedding again,' Harry laughed.

Charlie snorted, 'Can't be that difficult to find a compromise can it?'

'Well not that you'd know Weasley,' Draco said irritably, 'but planning a wedding is very stressful.'

'Is it?' Gabrielle asked in disbelief, 'imagine how stressful it must be for me then since I've done everything!'

Charlie shook his head at the couple and mumbled to Hermione, 'So glad that isn't us.'

Hermione frowned, 'I knew it! I knew you didn't want to marry me Charlie! I mean everybody has been going on about it, your Mother, Ginny, all of your brothers, even Harry mentioned it! But you didn't do anything, or say anything! What is your problem with marriage?'

Their table fell silent at Hermione's rant, and Charlie raised an eyebrow at the bushy haired girl, 'Hermione, I meant I'm glad that isn't us because we won't fight about cake or food or bloody colour schemes. I'll just let you do whatever you want because I don't care about all that fancy stuff, I just care about you.'

'Oh,' Hermione said as she blushed profusely, 'I'm sorry Charlie…I…I misunderstood.'

'I noticed,' Charlie grinned, 'Merlin if I'd known you were that eager to marry me I'd have asked you sooner. I was waiting till Christmas so the ring's at home but-'

'No, no,' Hermione said as she shook her head, 'don't ruin it, oh Merlin I've gone and ruined it! It's fine just obliviate me, or get Gabby to do it she's good at memory charms. It's fine, I don't mind!'

'Hermione, I'm not obliviating you,' Charlie said in disbelief.

'Oh please, I wanted it to be a surprise and now I know it's going to be at Christmas,' Hermione said with puppy dog eyes.

'Oh bloody hell,' Charlie said irritably. He spun on his heel and vanished and then appeared again literally seconds later holding a small black box, 'Hermione Granger, will you please marry me?'

Gabrielle squealed in excitement and even Draco smiled slightly as Hermione's jaw dropped and Charlie got down on one knee. There were paparazzi cameras everywhere capturing their every move but they didn't seem to mind. Harry shot Daphne a grin and grabbed her hand under the table, she was beaming at the couple too.

'Yes, of course!' Hermione said as Charlie slipped the ring on her finger and lifted her off the ground with the hug he gave her.

'I guess it all worked out well in the end,' Daphne whispered to Harry, 'Charlie and me breaking up that is. Who'd have thought we'd both have fallen for our respective war heroes?'

Harry smiled and kissed his wife gently on the lips, 'Yet here we are, we're married, you're a fully qualified Auror, Draco Malfoy is a reformed man, and Hermione is a marrying a Weasley who isn't Ron…I guess a lot can change in a year.'

'Yes, it can,' Daphne said with a radiant smile as she gently rested her hand on her stomach. Harry's eyes flashed with excitement, and in that moment he thanked his lucky stars (and Hermione) for the radio show that had changed his life.

THE END

A/N: Thanks for following this till the end guys, I know there were ridiculously long periods of time between chapters at points! But it's finally finished, and I hope you all enjoyed it!

Holly

xxx