After the War

Chapter 20

I stood at the door, wondering how I got talked into this. Damn you, Ginny. Screw it, it's too late to change my mind now, isn't it? I took a deep breath and pulled the door open. "Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I am so glad that you could make it." I say smiling at them.

"Hermione." Mr. Weasley said before wrapping me in a hug. I could have sobbed at how familiar this was, at how much I really did miss them.

"Hey Mr. Weasley." I said, wrapping my arms around him.

He took a deep breath before pulling back, leaving his hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eyes, "You look good." he said before patting my cheek gently and stepping to the side. Mrs. Weasley stood there looking at me for a moment before smiling at me. I wanted to cry. I smiled back slightly and stepped aside, "Please, come in. We have just sat down to eat." I said, closing the door and leading them to the kitchen.

We walked in and Ginny stood up and gave her mum and dad a hug, "Hello, how did you go getting here?" She asked.

"Fine, dear. How are you?" Asked Mr. Weasley.

"I'm good." She said as she sat down.

Dean shook Mr. Weasley's hand and gave Mrs. Weasley a hug and kiss on the cheek. Harry just waved to them from his seat. I gestured to the table, "Please, feel free to sit down. Would you like a glass of wine?" I asked them.

"I don't think I have ever had a glass; I wouldn't mind trying one. What about you, dear?" Mr. Weasley said, turning to look at his wife who just smiled slightly and nodded her head. I got the glasses out and a bottle of wine, opening it and pouring the glasses before placing the bottle down for them. I sat down in my seat next to Harry again, giving him a small smile of thanks when he squeezed my thigh in support.

"Oh, how rude of me." I said, just remembering Emma when she let out a small cough. "This is Emma, my roommate and friend. And as it turns out, Dean's sister. Emma, this is Molly and Arthur Weasley."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Weasley." Said Emma.

"You as well. Hermione, this all looks amazing." Said Mr. Weasley, not so subtly nudging Mrs. Weasley, and indicating that he was talking about the apartment.

"Yes, it looks very good indeed, dear." She said after a moment.

"Please, help yourselves." I said. It was quiet for a bit before Ginny spoke up.

"Mum, Dean has shown me some nice places. The beaches here are gorgeous, maybe we could have a look around sometime. And you should see where Hermione works. A book shop, like she could work anywhere else though."

"I very nearly went into the ministry I'll have you know. It was a toss up between regulation of magical creatures, DMLE or auror." I said, "When I came here, a book shop just seemed like the logical choice."

"Yeah, I like the name you picked for it as well." Harry said.

Oh crap. "What do you mean?" I asked, at the same time as Emma asked, "Why would she have picked the name?"

"Oh my god. How did I not see that before?" exclaimed Ginny "Books Hollow. I should have known."

Really. Why did the universe hate me? What did I ever do to it? Hadn't I suffered enough?

"Really? How could you not have picked it up straight away? Godric's Hollow? The Books Hollow? I knew as soon as I saw it." Harry said, talking a mouthful of food.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked, looking perplexed.

"The name of the bookstore that you work at, the one that Hermione owns." Ginny said.

"Yeah... about that..." I say.

"What do you mean that you own it?" Emma asked me.

"I... umm... well, I bought it off the lady who owned it previously and renamed it. No one who works there knows I own it. I didn't want anyone to. I leave most of the running of it to my mum as she and dad have owned their own business before." I said looking at her, feeling guilty for not telling her before.

"Were you ever going to tell me you were the one paying my checks?"

"Yeah, I was. I was planning on telling you at Christmas. I was planning on giving half the business to you as your present. Remember the conversation we had, months ago, where you said that you would love to own your own store?" She nodded to me. "Well, I thought you might like to co-own this one with me, so it was going to be your present." I finished, looking down.

"Hermione, you have done quite well for yourself here." Mr. Weasley spoke up. "It couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't, to begin with. But then I found my parents and a therapist. And then the book shop, and then Emma." I said.

"But not us." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Molly." Mr. Weasley said.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Yes, you're sorry now. But not when we all thought you had been taken in retaliation for the war. Not when we thought you were suffering who knows what and laying somewhere dying. Not when we tried and tried to get in contact with you and you ignored us." Mrs. Weasley said, slamming her cutlery down. "You have no idea what we went through. We had just lost our Charlie, our son, and then we thought we had lost our daughter."

"I am sorry. I was sorry then and I am sorry now. But no one was there to catch me when I fell. I caught all of you and no one caught me." I retorted. Definitely things weren't going the way I thought they would. Everything was starting to heat up.

"We were there! We were all there for you! But you didn't want..."

"No, you weren't, you weren't and couldn't be and that was fine, but I couldn't stay." I said back.

"Yes, we were. We were ALWAYS there for you." Mrs. Weasley said, both of us jumping to our feet.

How dare she say that she was there for me? I just couldn't hold it any longer. That was the moment I decided to let everything go and just show her how wrong she was. Show her how painful it had been to me when staying at The Burrow. So... I just lost it.

"NO, YOU WEREN'T. I CAME TO YOU MRS. WEASLEY, I CAME CRYING TO YOU ONE DAY AND YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE TOO BUSY. I CAME TO YOU SAYING I COULDN'T DO IT, THAT I FELT LIKE I JUST WANTED IT ALL TO END AND YOU SAID YOU WERE TOO BUSY." I took a breath before continuing, still not having enough. "I came to you, telling you I wanted to die, to end the pain, and you ignored me. You turned me away." I finished, my voice a bit broken when speaking the last few words.

A/N: So, you all know how much I hate doing these in the chapters, but, I would like to thank @Messi_ThePotterhead for their help on chapters 19 and 20.