Written for:

Flying Lesson - Task: For this task, you are focusing on endings. This chapter, whether or not it is part of a multi-chap or a series of oneshots, should focus on something ending for your couple. This does not have to be the relationship traditionally ending, however. You could use the theme of endings for a variation of different things that could happen within the story. Perhaps the couple are moving on in their lives to another chapter - this could be getting married, and ending their engagement or previous relationship. Maybe they are saying goodbye to a negative influence in their lives. It is completely up to you how you want to approach this theme!

Prompts:

(quote) "The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected." - Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

(plot) People are watching the stars in the story

Ultimate Battle - (Normal) Silver Greaves [lower body armour] (It was just Gladiator greaves but Magnolia decided to polish it and try to pull it off as Silver greaves. Equip Effect: Ignore 4 Characterization dmg.) - price: 600 words, any era other than Trio

Twelve Moments In Time: The End, Or a New Beginning

Hermione held the small baby in her arms, cradling him to her chest. "What do you want to name him?" she whispered, not lifting her eyes from the baby for a single moment.

James stared at the small baby for a long moment. "It's no good," he muttered, mostly to himself.

"What's no good?" Hermione asked, dragging her eyes away, slightly panicked. Things has been tense between the pair of them throughout the whole pregnancy, with Hermione fearing James would leave her. She believed the only reason he had stayed with her was because of the Healer stating that the stress from everything she had been through had caused so much damage to her body already, and James didn't want to cause any further damage.

She also believed that was why he hadn't argued with her. But not that the baby was born, things may change.

"Well, my grandfather... I had always pictured... I think you should pick a name."

"You want to name him after your Grandfather?" Hermione guessed, relieved that James wasn't trying to end things.

"Yeah... no. I mean, before, I always planned to name my son after him..."

"What's his name?" Hermione asked.

James took a deep breath. "Harry. His name was Harry. But I know you won't want -"

"Well, that was when I wasn't sure whether it was you or Lily that picked Harry's name," Hermione said. "But if that's the case, in my old life, you had picked your son's name then, so I can... I'm happy to..." she turned her attention back to the baby. "Welcome to the world, Harry James Potter."

Her heart pounded against her chest. She knew how important the date was. Harry had been born on the same day, after all, but she tried to forget about it as James sat down gently on the bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

"Thank you," he whispered, a hand reaching out to stroke through the thin wisps of dark hair on their son's head.

...oOo...

Hermione knew what was going to happen. She knew that Harry needed to be protected at all costs, and that there was a madman after him.

The letters had been left in possession of Alice Longbottom. She didn't know the importance of them, only that they would be given out on a certain date.

The day after Halloween.

That afternoon, she smiled at James, insisting that he head off to see Sirius and Remus. She told him that she had a headache and needed a break and that she'd take a nap at the same time as Harry. Once he was gone, she carefully changed the wards to her own wards and took down the Fidilius charm.

After all, they couldn't hide forever. She wasn't going to allow it. She knew Voldemort would never stop trying to find Harry. But she could stop him from getting Harry and she could give everyone ten years to take down Voldemort - Horcruxes and all.

This time, there was no James to try and stop Voldemort in the hall, as he entered the house. This time, Hermione knew what was coming - she knew whose footsteps those were on the stairs. She stood in front of her son, begging Voldemort to see reason. She tried to make him feel remorse, knowing that his soul would reattach itself if he did. It was a tiny hope, but it was all she had.

She knew what she was doing - she knew she was giving her life for that of her son. So he could grow up in the Wizarding world. So he could have friends and not have to worry about war. So he didn't have to go on the run. He would still have James and the rest of his family.

The last thing she felt was the green light hit her, but she knew that her son, Harry, would be protected by her blood, and the blood ritual she had all but forced Sirius Black into, would keep Harry safe should anything ever happen to James.

...oOo...

"She's stirring."

Hermione took a few deep breaths, her body aching. She couldn't see anything, the room was dark.

"Hermione?"

"Mum?" Hermione whispered, recognising the voice.

"It's her! She's awake. Thank goodness. Hermione dear, what... you..."

"Mum? Dad?" she whispered. "Where am I?"

"You fainted," her mother said. "A Wizard turned up and... you're in the Wizard Hospital. It's strange, but you look... older."

"How are you both here? Muggles can't see the place." She felt two hands in her own.

"A very nice Wizard pulled out all the stops to get us access," her father confirmed.

Hermione groaned. "What..." she trailed off as all her memories of the last few years hit her. "No," she whispered, lifting her arms and putting them over her face as the tears ran.

"There's a boy called Harry here to see you."

Hermione could only nod, swiping the tears away desperately as her father helped her sit up. Her gaze fell on a boy with messy black hair.

Just as she remembered him.

"Harry? What happened?" she asked. "Did I change anything? You're alive this time at least."

He moved closer, looking completely lost for words.

"Harry? What's the..." she gasped. "Your eyes? They aren't green?"

"Why would they be green?" he asked, confused.

She stared into brown eyes. "I'm just as confused as you are," she whispered.

Before she could say anything more, the door crashed open, with four Wizards rushing in. "Hermione? What do you remember?" Sirius asked, rushing forward and grabbing her. Her father stood up, glaring at Sirius.

"She's not well, I suggest you be a little bit more gentle with her," he said, in the voice that Hermione used to hate hearing - the one that meant that she was in trouble.

Sirius loosed his grip.

"I remember... that Harry shouldn't have brown eyes," she said, laughing shakily. "I have no idea what's going on. My Harry had green eyes, but my little Harry had brown."

Sirius grinned. "You're you!" he exclaimed. He turned around, looking at the pair behind him. "It's her!"

Remus came forward, wrapping his arms around her and she clung to him. James was the last, and she stared at him in complete shock. She barely noticed the younger Wizard slinking off to the side.

"That was a dirty trick you pulled," he began. "But I was never mad about it. I didn't know what would happen since you changed time and... I mean, the you that Harry met in Hogwarts wasn't actually you, and we wondered what would happen when you reached the age where you..."

"Mum, Dad," she said, turning to the pair. "I didn't actually faint. I travelled back in time... I was there for about four years. I... well, I thought I was going to be there forever. I started a new life, I got married. I had a son."

The pair looked completely and utterly shocked. "How far back did you travel?" her mother asked.

"Well, let's put it this way. If I had stayed there, I'd be around the same age as these three," she gestured to Remus, Sirius and James.

"So... do you want to introduce us to your family?"

"I'm not sure, he may have moved on, or..." she trailed off, tears in her eyes at the thought of James having moved on and found someone else - of her little Harry calling someone else 'mummy'.

"Of course I didn't," James replied, frowning at the very idea. "You're the love of my life, Hermione. I figured that the younger you wouldn't have the need to travel back in time and just waited to find out what to do. I thought maybe I'd be too old, or you may never remember, but I took the risk and waited, because I only wanted to be with you."

"So... we're still married?" she whispered.

James nodded, smiling at the hopeful look on Hermione's face.

"When I woke up and saw Harry, before I realised... I thought that I hadn't changed much. I thought... I thought that I may never see you again. The thought of you not being with me, hurt," she said.

"The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected," James replied. "I've been away from you for so long, and then had to watch the other Hermione growing up, dating boys... though Harry and Eridanus seemed to keep them away from you for the most part. I knew that she wasn't my Hermione, and I just waited and hoped... and now you're here. Merlin, I can't believe it!"

"And this is my Harry? Our Harry?" she asked. "Not the Harry from my original time?"

James nodded. "Our son," he confirmed. Hermione looked around, finding Harry in the corner along with a shy looking boy with black hair and amber eyes, who was watching her with a awed look.

"Eridanus," she murmured. "Is that you? You look so much like your fathers. Harry - my Harry! My boys!"

The pair ran over to her, arms wrapping around her tightly. "Merlin, Hermione. We didn't expect to find out you were our mum, but -"

"You're both of their mum?" Hermione's mum said, sounding faint.

"Surrogacy," Sirius explained, his arm around Remus. "Hermione got herself pregnant with Harry within weeks of giving us our boy."

"You're both so grown," she murmured. "And I... did I see you grow up? Do we know each other in this timeline?"

"We do," Harry said, pulling back from her. "You mothered us both here. We don't know what we would have done without you. We were friends!"

"How did that happen?" Hermione asked, clutching one of each of their hands.

"Well, me and Eridanus were friends, and we were in the same dorm as Ron, and you and him seemed to butt heads. You hung out with Neville a little bit, but then Ron was nasty to you after class one day..."

"Yeah, I remember that, it happened in my time. Please tell me we didn't fight a troll."

"You fought a..." Harry trailed off, looking to Eridanus for help. "A troll? How? When?"

"We came to find you," Eridanus added. "And we started looking out for you from that point really. Weasley didn't like it, but we didn't care. It just felt right to look out for you. We stopped talking to Weasley after that."

Hermione smiled.

"And once, when we fell out, we moaned to our dads about you and they all went mental at us, telling us that no matter what, we had to look after you. We didn't really understand until we were thirteen and Remus took a job at the school and Snape caused trouble and hinted at stuff. The pair of us started looking into it and managed to find the yearbook from the last year and found a picture of Hermione Granger with them." Eridanus continued.

"That was a weird day for us," Harry said. "We wrote home, demanding answers and the three of them turned up at Hogwarts and explained it all to us. We never told our Hermione because she wasn't the right Hermione at the time and we knew she'd freak out. We hoped that we could meet you though."

Hermione wiped the tears away again.

"Why did you..." Harry began, looking away.

"Because you'd spend the whole of your life hiding and running and I didn't want that for you," Hermione said. "I forced Sirius into a blood ritual weeks before, as he was the only one who would be willing to deal with the blood magic, that way if anything happened to James, Sirius would be the one to protect you. I wanted you to have a proper life and be happy, and there was only one way to do that. I left instructions on everything I knew about Voldemort - on every Death Eater. On all future events. All deaths. The Longbottoms attack... I wanted to know that if something happened to James, that Harry would be in good hands."

James' arms wrapped around her again. "I'm so glad you're you again," he breathed. "Love, I've missed you more than anything."

Hermione let go of the boy's hands, to cling to James.

"So... we have grandchildren?" Hermione's father murmured. "This was unexpected."

"But I don't understand why I'm here?" Hermione said. "I thought that once the spell hit me, that would be the end of it."

Remus moved forward. "I researched time-travel cases," he admitted. "I found some stories where the traveller went back to their own time, their memories intact. Some cases weren't so lucky. We hoped that you were on that would remember. James has been waiting for this moment for years."

"So what happens now?" Hermione asked. "Our house was destroyed."

"I had a feeling that you never much cared for that house," James said, with a smile. "I realised within a few weeks that you had planned all this and when we went into hiding and purchased the house, you had already decided what to do."

"I had," she admitted.

"Well, we all live in the Potter Estate. Remus and Sirius moved in to help me when I lost you, and they never left. If... when you're ready, you can come back. Any time you want, it's not the same as when you left it, but it's still got your things."

Hermione looked towards her parents.

"Your parents too," James insisted. "Whatever it takes to have my Hermione back."

"You already have me back," Hermione said, smiling at him. "You never lost me."

"I... I have a question," Harry said. "Why did you think I had green eyes?"

"In my old life, there was no Eridanus Lupin-Black, and the Harry Potter that I was best friends with, had green eyes. His mother was Lily Evans."

"Who is Lily Evans?" Harry asked.

"That's Snape's mum," Eridanus said, sneering at the name.

"The red-headed woman who hates Hermione?" Harry asked, causing Eridanus to nod.

"She only hates me because James chose me over her," Hermione replied smugly. "Even though she tried to break us up, it just didn't work."

James took her hand and turned it over, placing two rings into it, along with a gold chain.

"No pressure," he murmured. "In case you didn't want to wear them straight away, I thought -"

She dropped the chain down onto the bed, slipping the rings onto her left hand. "Of course I would want these. I'm your wife after all."

...oOo...

The pair sat hand in hand under the stars in the Potter Estate. Hermione had only been out of hospital for a few hours, but she had claimed to have spent enough time away from her Husband and Son. She insisted that her parents stay for a few nights, to stop her having to choose between everybody. The pair had accepted, understanding that James, Harry, Sirius, Remus and Eridanus were now also Hermione's family.

Sirius and Remus had retired to bed, due to the full moon the previous night, leaving Eridanus and Harry with Hermione's parents. The pair had dismissed the surrogacy mention, stating that Hermione had given birth to both of the boys, so they were both their Grandsons. Eridanus had been more than happy at the exclaimation.

Hermione and James had watched the Grangers talking to the boys for a while, before slipping outside into the garden, to sit on the grass and stare up at the stars.

"Will be be okay?" Hermione whispered.

James nodded. "I was devestated when I had lost you, I was so angry, but with the letter... I think, had it been the other way around, I would have done the same thing for Harry. That's when I realised that I couldn't be angry at you. I would have kept it a secret too. You put your son before everything, and I can't be mad at you over that. I stopped being mad within days of losing you. I love you, Hermione."

"I love you too," Hermione replied. "And the war?"

"All the Horcruxes are gone. Me, Sirius and Remus set up a controlled environment with some trusted Healers at St. Mungos. We... I won't go into details, but he's not a Horcrux anymore. We saved a lot of people thanks to you, and jailed quite a few too... but we still lost some."

Hermione could only nod, not ready to hear a list of names just yet.

"The war is over, and I'm with my family. I feel like I can finally let go of everything else," Hermione said. "My family are alive, my parents are here. There's nothing more I could want than this right here."

James' hand rested on her stomach. "Nothing at all?" he asked.

She couldn't help but smile. "Well, maybe a couple of things."

...oOo...

Hermione fixed her hair and put on the red dress her mother had bought for her. She smiled at Harry and Eridanus, before taking James' hand.

"You do know how weird this is, right?" Harry said. "I mean, you're my best friend, who I found out was my mum, so I prepared myself that you might remember... but I never... it's weird seeing you with my Dad, even though..."

She laughed. "I can understand. I know you're my son, but you're just the same as the best-friend I grew up with. I know I don't have your Hermione's memories, but I can imagine that we were just as close."

"Have fun at the party," Harry said.

Hermione adjusted the rings on her hand. "I intend to!"

...oOo...

Hermione smiled around the room, immediately guiding James over towards Minerva McGonagall.

Her eyes widened at the sight. "This is something I wasn't sure I'd ever see again," she began. "I trust that Miss Granger has -"

"Mrs Potter," Hermione corrected her, smirking. "And I remember everything... though I don't remember this timeline - the Hermione that you all know. Only my own."

"I'm glad," Minerva replied, warmly.

Hermione spotted someone over her shoulder. "Ah, this should be interesting. If you'll excuse me, Minerva."

Without waiting for an answer, Hermione pulled James past her, towards a familiar redhead.

Lily took in Hermione with a look of contempt. "Potter," she said. "I see that your tastes has gotten younger. A girl, not long out of school. It's disgusting, lower than I expected you to go."

"But not as low as to go for you still," Hermione smirked. "I've been out of school for a long time, Evans, and I suggest that you don't talk to my husband in that manner, otherwise I'll be forced to deal with you in the only way you've ever understood." Her fingers twitched over her wand.

Lily's eyes narrowed. "Hermione Granger. I was wondering if you would ever show, or if you would stay that bossy little -"

"And I was wondering if you threw your old saggy self at my husband in my absence, not that he'd want you. I mean, he chose me over you countless times, why would that change?"

"I'm happily married, I'll have you know," Lily sniffed.

Hermione smiled. "I'm glad. Well, me and James have people to meet. It's hard work being Lady Potter after all." She held up her hand, showing the slim band that had once belonged to James' mother, with the Potter crest on it, alongside her engagement ring.

Lily stared at the band.

"Come on James, If we're quick, we can find an empty cupboard or room and have a shag... "

"That's if Sirius and Remus haven't found the empty room first," James said, grinning at her.

Review Please :)

3285 words

Thanks to Firefly for inspiring me to write this :D