After the war, Hermione finds that she had drifted apart from Harry and Ron, as their lives head in different directions. As new opportunities come to her and she makes new friends, will the Golden Trio ever reconnect? Cedric lives. HG/CD.

.o.O.o.

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own it – I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Author's Notes:

» Thank you to my beta, the wonderful StrongHermione, for all her help and support.

» Thank you for all the reviews, alerts and follows; they're all appreciated.

.o.O.o.

Chapter 15

A few months after Hermione's service period with Gringotts was over, she found herself pregnant and the goblins immediately took her out of field work. Cedric was assigned back to Melbourne, as they wanted to give him experience of the types of duties carried out by curse breakers who were based at a branch of the bank and did not go out on field teams, rather like Bill Weasley had done for the past several years. Hermione mostly did research as she had been ordered to take it easy during her pregnancy, while Cedric was introduced to Gringotts' many different departments. He very much enjoyed his work on field teams but he wanted to be closer to home during Hermione's pregnancy and after she gave birth.

Cedric found that he particularly enjoyed working in the Warding Department, where warding specialists were contracted out to install or break protective wards. Traditionally, most wards were based either on Charms or else on Runes. Cedric had excelled at Ancient Runes at Hogwarts, while Hermione was an expert in Charms. However, they each had a very good working knowledge of the other's area of expertise and so began working together to create a new style of blended wards. These wards were exceptionally strong and were quickly in demand. Gringotts guarded the secret of them carefully, so that only their specialist warding experts would know how to use and manipulate the new wards. The goblins were delighted as this was fast turning into a very lucrative business for Gringotts.

Hermione then proceeded to adapt their blended Charms and Runes based wards even further. While she had previously created charms to protect electronics and allow them to be used in a magical environment, there had been a problem with regard to powering these items. Some, of course, could be run on batteries but many electronics required a mains power source and most wizarding homes, at least in Britain and Europe, were not wired for or hooked up to an electrical supply. Hermione had therefore created charms to adapt the electronics to run off magic, however, this was even more problematic, as it would be a continual drain on the magical core of the person supplying the magic to power the electrical items. This would not be a problem for items which would only be used for a short period of time whenever they were used, such as a hairdryer or electrical screwdriver or food processor, but it was a problem for items that would need to run continuously.

Once she and Cedric had created their blended wards, she used this technique to adapt a wardstone into a chargestone, which could supply the magic required without taking the power from a person. Depending on the number of items using this power source, the chargestone should last for a minimum of six months before it would need to be recharged. It would provide a warning when the amount of magical power in the stone had dropped to twenty percent and it would then be the owner's responsibility to recharge it. Hermione created a charm that would allow the stone to be recharged in twenty percent increments over a series of days, thus ensuring that no one would over-power their core by trying to charge the chargestone fully in a single attempt. This created another fruitful side-line for Gringotts, as the secret of creating the chargestones was kept in-house and only the recharging spell sold to the general public.

The goblins, of course, had patented these inventions; however, due to the divide between magical humans and other magical races, access to patents owned by Gringotts was highly restricted. The existence of the patents and their nature was available to all but the actual details of the patent were available only to Gringotts employees, who had to swear oaths to keep the information confidential. The goblins could not be more pleased with this young and exceptionally bright couple they had taken into their employ and happily paid Hermione and Cedric a fair percentage of the profits earned by Gringotts from the blended wards and chargestone businesses in lieu of royalties, since these particular patents were technically in Gringotts' name.

Both sets of parents were thrilled to learn that they were to become grandparents, as there had been concern that Hermione may not be able to have children thanks to the amount of time she had suffered the Cruciatus Curse at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, since her Cruciatus was known to be particularly vicious and damaging. Knowing her medical history, the goblins insisted that her pregnancy be overseen by their own Healers and their head Potions Master who been Hermione's mentor at Gringotts, Master Stonecrest. Fortunately, the pregnancy progressed without any problems, despite Hermione being pregnant with twins.

At the end of the first trimester, Hermione and Cedric asked to be told the genders of the babies and were elated to hear that there was a boy and a girl. They did not share this news with their family or friends but over the next few months began thinking about names for their children.

"I like Hugo for a boy," said Cedric. "The name means heart, mind and spirit; or bright in mind and spirit or intelligence. That name could have been designed especially for your son as not only does it begin with H like your name, but it epitomises his beautiful mother."

Hermione blushed and gazed lovingly at her husband. "Hugo. I like that name. I had been thinking about something like Justin and Hope, in honour of our hopes for a just and equal magical world but I don't want to lay our problems on the next generation, like your parents' generation did to us. We need to clear up the mess our world is in ourselves. Hugo is personally inspiring, rather than an obligation to society."

"Well, from what Dad says, Kingsley, Harry and Arthur, and also Minerva at Hogwarts, seem to be doing a very good job in clearing up the British Wizarding World," he said, smiling at his wife who was sitting curled up in his arms on the couch, while he gently ran his hand over her swollen belly. Looking down at the bump in her stomach, he spoke to it lovingly. "Do you like the name Hugo, son?"

Cedric felt a kick under his hand. "Did you feel that?" he asked Hermione in astonishment, who nodded at him with wide eyes. "Well, I guess that was approval. Hugo it is," he laughed.

Hermione kissed him sweetly. "If our son's name is to begin with H for Hermione, then our daughter's name should begin with C for Cedric. I know your Mum's family has a tradition of flower names for girls, so what about a pretty flower name for our pretty daughter?"

Hermione already had a list of flower names that she liked. She summoned her list and looked at all the ones beginning with C. "I quite like Clover; there was a girl called Clover in one of my favourite children's books. Or what about Cassinia?" she asked. "It's a flowering shrub native to the Southern Hemisphere. It would be a nice remembrance of the fact that we started our married lives here and our children will be born here."

"Those are both nice names," agreed Cedric reading the list over her shoulder. "But what about your family's naming tradition? Doesn't your Mum's family have a tradition of Ancient Greco-Roman names? She's called Helen, you're Hermione and I'm sure Helen mentioned once that your grandmother also had an Ancient Greco-Roman name?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, my grandmother was called Phoebe."

"So our daughter should have an Ancient Greco-Roman name, too," he said.

"Two names, then? Cassinia Phoebe, perhaps?"

"Cassinia Phoebe Diggory? It's a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?" Cedric shook his head and pointed at the list. "Look at that name."

"Chloe?"

"Read the etymology of the name again," he advised.

Hermione looked at her list, where she had characteristically noted the meaning and origin of all the names she liked. "A green shoot," she read.

"It's not quite a flower but it's close enough. Carry on reading."

She looked up at Cedric and smiled. "It's also another name for the Goddess Demeter."

"Both family traditions in one name. A pretty name for our pretty daughter," he repeated, kissing Hermione's cheek.

With another kick from Hermione's baby bump, it was decided. The twins would be called Hugo and Chloe.

Finally the big day came and on the eleventh of July, Hermione and Cedric's second wedding anniversary, the twins were born. Cedric presented Hermione with a special gift for the occasion: an Aaron Basha charm bracelet¹ with two matching shoe pendants, commemorating the birth of their children. One was a boy's saddle shoe in Hufflepuff yellow with black polka dots and the other was a girly strap shoe in Gryffindor red with gold polka dots. He had the children's initials and date of birth engraved on the back of each shoe. There was also a diamond heart pendant, commemorating their anniversary and signifying Cedric's love for his wife and children. Hermione adored the gaudy bracelet for the sentiments behind it and put protective charms on the pendants to stop them from getting chipped or worn, only taking the bracelet off when she was brewing potions.

Amos and Amaryllis had planned to be in Australia for the birth of their children but, unfortunately, were unable to come after Amos had a health scare. Hermione and Cedric had already been talking about returning to live in the UK in the next couple of years and this brought them to the decision that the time had now come. Finding employment in the UK would be no problem for the young couple, as Gringotts easily transferred Hermione and Cedric back to London to head the teams that would be working with their new wards and chargestones. Gringotts Melbourne was sorry to see them leave their branch of the bank but Gringotts London was looking forward to working with this young couple that had so much potential.

John and Helen were happy to return to Britain with them. They initially planned to take locum work while they looked for a permanent home and a dental practice to take over or buy into, however, they quickly found a thriving dental practice for sale in Exeter in Devon; the present partners, also a husband and wife team, were looking to retire and John and Helen quickly snapped it up and happily settled in the historic town. They were only about half an hour's drive from the senior Diggory's home near Ottery St Catchpole and were approximately the same distance from Hermione and Cedric, who had settled on the south coast, just outside the historic village of Otterton on the River Otter.

Cedric and Hermione continued working for Gringotts. Cedric become one of their primary warding specialists, while Hermione, with her insatiable curiosity and thirst for learning and knowledge, flitted from one area to another. The goblins were happy to encourage her varied interests, as she always brought about innovation in whatever she tackled. Over the years, her name became synonymous with magical advances, usually in partnership with Gringotts. This was much to the chagrin of the Unspeakables, who would have loved to recruit her to their ranks; however, she had no desire to work for the Ministry and politely turned them down every time they approached her.

On their tenth wedding anniversary, Cedric presented Hermione with three more Aaron Basha charms for her bracelet: an otter for her Patronus, a cat for her Animagus and a fox for his Animagus and Patronus. With the assistance of his mother and mother-in-law, he had also prepared a surprise party for Hermione that evening, inviting all the guests who had attended their wedding, including their friends from Australia.

Percy and Audrey Weasley, who had been unable to attend the wedding since Audrey had been due to give birth at that time and could not travel, also attended the anniversary party, however, Ronald and his wife, Romilda, did not. Ron and Romilda had made a success of their games shop and had one child, a daughter named Rose. Hermione had tried to reach out to Ron a few times over the years but to no avail. She regretted the loss of what had once been a close friendship, however, as she was still close to the rest of the Weasleys, this was more for the sake of his family than for her own sake.

As for her other best friend, the months immediately after the war when Harry had neglected his friend while he tried to deal with all that had happened were long forgotten and the two best friends were so close that they had started referring to themselves as 'brother and sister of the heart' shortly after Hermione and Cedric's return to the UK from Australia. Even her parents had come to regard Harry as an honorary son, while Hugo and Chloe adored their Potter 'cousins,' James, Albus and Lily.

As she happily mingled with the guests, Cedric announced, "I'd like to make a toast to my beautiful wife. Where are you, Peaches? Come over here beside me." Hermione went over to her husband, who took her hand and kissed it lingeringly.

Looking deeply into her eyes, he continued. "Hermione, my love… actually, no! I should begin by thanking Kingsley Shacklebolt and Bill Weasley."

Cedric looked over to where the two men were standing looking puzzled and winked, before returning his attention to Hermione, who was standing facing him, as she had done at their wedding. He clasped both her hands between his and held them against his heart. "It was they who suggested that I accompany Hermione to Australia to find her parents after the war and that is the best thing that ever happened to me. We were already friends but it took only a few days of her company for me to begin falling deeply and irrevocably in love with this wonderful woman. I thank all the gods and goddesses every day for blessing me with my brilliant, beautiful wife and our gorgeous children. It's my family who give my life meaning. I love you, Hermione, so very, very much."

Hermione looked at her husband with tears pooling in her eyes. "I too am blessed, Cedric. My life would be desolate without you and our family, and without the love and support you have given me ever since the day we left for Australia. When I left the Burrow after the war, it was to find my family, and when you agreed to come with me, I found my family in ways that I didn't expect. Not just my Mum and Dad, but also your parents, and most especially, you, my husband, and Hugo and Chloe, our children. I love you, dear heart."

Hermione's lips met Cedric's in the sweetest, tenderest, most loving of kisses, as their children ran up and threw their arms around their parents. Hermione and Cedric broke off their kiss and drew Hugo and Chloe closer into their embrace. As Hermione nuzzled her children's hair, she looked up to see John, Helen, Amos and Amaryllis all converging upon them. Surrounded by her loving family, Hermione reflected on what she had found in Australia all those years ago. "My heart and soul: my family."

.o.O.o.

¹ aaronbasha dot com – I've been creative with the charm pendants I've described, though. Oh, and I know these charms are rather expensive and so Cedric would be unlikely to buy three at once, but, hey, it's fiction!