My Everything

The Hermione Monologues, Part 5/7

Author: Lissanne
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. No infringement intended.
Summary: Futurefic, Hermione POV. Hermione reflects on a life full of love, sorrows, joys, and hope.
Thankyou: A huge thank you goes to Debbie for her beta and her support and encouragement. Without her, these monologues would never have seen the light of day.

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Victoria got married last weekend.

Harry would have been so proud of her. She looked like an angel as she floated down the aisle on Ron's arm. At 25 years of age, Harry's baby has grown up.

It was a beautiful ceremony. Victoria and her husband Thomas chose to have a small, intimate affair with just close friends and family. I stayed out of the preparations, commenting only when Victoria asked for my opinion. I'm sure she was worried about upsetting me because of Harry's absence; his not being able to walk her down the aisle and give her away to a man who reminds me so much of him.

She asked me for my approval for the wording on the invitations. Just when I thought that, after 26 years - more than half my life - of living without the one true love of my life, it wasn't possible for me to get upset seeing his name anymore, Victoria's thoughtfulness managed to reduce me to tears. Especially since I'm well aware Victoria's attachment to Harry is mostly for my benefit, because it's important to me. I'll never forget the feeling those lines evoked as I read them.

You are cordially invited to attend the marriage of

Thomas Michael
Son of John and Rosemary Byrne

To

Victoria Lily
Daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley & Harry Potter

I wasn't able to stop the stream of tears as they leaked steadily from my eyes and down my cheeks. Victoria hugged me tightly, telling me that if I didn't want his name on the invitation, she would remove it. I managed to find enough strength to explain why I was crying … that after all this time, she still wanted to be acknowledged as Harry's daughter, despite legally being Ron's child.

What she replied with will stay with me for the rest of my life. She told me she would always be Harry's daughter and no adoption or marriage would change that. She was proud to have been the only child of The Boy Who Lived, and if she could have changed just one thing in her life, she would have brought Harry back so she could have gotten to know him.

That night, for the first time since I could remember, Ron held me in his arms and rocked me as the sobs overtook my body and I lost the ability to speak. He admitted that Victoria had also come to him for his permission and he, too, had shed a tear in admiration of the precious legacy that Harry had never known.

Ron was the proudest father in the world as he walked our daughter down the aisle, with all three sets of grandparents looking proudly on - my parents, Molly and Arthur, and Sirius, whom she calls Grandpa.

At the reception, she did it again. After the obligatory dance between the bride and her father, she escorted Ron back to the table, then turned to Sirius and asked him if he'd dance the next dance with her in Harry's place. With proud tears in his eyes, he said he'd be honoured, and they danced together in memory of Harry. Ginny took a photo of them on the dance floor and had it blown up and framed for me, and it sits in my study, where I come sometimes if I feel melancholy, or am going through a day where I still miss Harry desperately. They have faded in frequency as the years have passed, but I do still have them. And I cope the best way I know how, by going through my photos and journals of the time we spent together, then remembering the good times. Thinking about him in that context always makes me smile. Although we were only married for three years, and together for two years before that, I have a lifetime of memories that I cherish.

I have now been married to Ron for nineteen years. Our two sons, Christopher and Matthew, are now teenagers, in their seventh and fifth year at Hogwarts respectively. I guess it comes as no great surprise that all three of our children were sorted into Gryffindor. How could they not have been?

I'm proud of our children. They've grown into fine young adults, even if they have given me more than a few grey hairs.

I'm older now, a lot older than I once thought I'd ever be. In the months immediately following Harry's death, I was sure I'd pine away and not make it. But I did. With the love of a good man, three wonderful children, and a supportive family. They allowed me to grieve the way I needed to, for the man who knew my soul so intimately; and for that I'll be forever grateful.

My Everything: The Hermione Monologues, Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / Victoria / Harry