Epilogue

'Oh you have got to be kidding me!'

Ron had just apparated home after a hard days work at the Ministry, and his day had just got a whole lot worse.

'No, no, no, no, NO!'

He walked around the kitchen table and looked at the large piece of parchment which was starting to curl itself into a scroll. He picked up the smaller piece that was laid on top of it and read the handwriting he knew so well.

'Oh please no!'

He sunk down onto the wooden chair and supported his head in his left hand, the parchment tightly held in his right.

He re read the lines on the note to himself and shuddered at the prospect of what he knew was to come.

Ron,

We NEED to get this done tonight. The table plan WILL NOT draw itself. It shouldn't take too long; it's only the slightly obscure relatives we've got to find places for!

DO NOT read this and disappear off somewhere! I WILL FIND YOU!

Te Amo

Hermione x

He looked up at the large scroll of paper and unrolled it.

He sighed deeply, Hermione was right; there was only a short list of names on the right hand side still impatiently waiting to be seated somewhere in the reception hall.

After a few seconds he rubbed his eyes. The various names were each accompanied by a flashing dot: blue for muggle, red for wizard and purple for muggles who knew about wizards.

But that wasn't all. By far was that all!

In the middle of each table was a dot that was coloured according to the type of guests that were there: green was family, yellow was close friends who were considered family, turquoise was school friends, the luminous green (or 'snot green' as Ron insisted on calling it) was for family members who neither of them really wanted to invite but couldn't get out of doing so for one reason or another, and finally pink was work. This made Ron laugh, they were Aurors, a hard, demanding and dangerous job and Hermione had given the Auror table a pink dot.

He tore his eyes away from the multicoloured dots to the list at the side. He might as well try and have a go; Hermione had done most of it already.

He took his wand out of his cloak and then realised he hadn't as yet taken it off even though he had been in the house for five minutes now. He shook it off and it landed in a heap on the table.

He picked up his wand and jabbed the first name on the list – one of Hermione's great aunts who didn't have a clue about magic, was very deaf and quite a 'fussy old bag' as Hermione had said. It instantly became animated and followed Ron's wand tip as he moved it to the edge of the room.

Ron looked at the table arrangement and looked at one of the snot green-dotted tables furthest away from the top table and noticed the round circle was surrounded with names accompanied with blue dots, clearly a muggle only table. Ron smiled.

'This should be easy,' he said with a cocky smile on his face.

He moved his wand across the parchment and obediently the name followed. He jabbed the remaining place left at the chosen table and the name became solid.

Ron smiled at his achievement and was about to jab the next name on the list when Hermione's great aunt started pulsing an angry red, as did the person directly opposite her on the table.

'Huh?' Ron grunted when the flashing started. 'What the hell?'

He looked at the other name that had turned red, Hermione's Uncle Sol. He screwed up his eyes in concentration, trying to remember what Hermione had told him about her great uncle. His mind failed him though and he had to resort to looking through the dreaded notebook Hermione had written all the names of the people they had invited to the wedding, and all details about them.

He found the pad under the far end of the scroll (the parchment really was huge) and started thumbing through the pages, trying to find Hermione's great Aunt Helena and her great Uncle Sol.

After going through the entire book once and finding neither of them, he grunted in frustration and slowly started again.

Harry & Ginny; no, the direct Weasley family; no, the direct Granger family; no.

As the wedding guests became less and less easily recognised Ron slowed down, making sure he didn't miss either of them this time round.

'Oh you didn't try putting my Aunt Helena next to Uncle Sol did you Ron? Are you trying to start muggle World War Three?'

Ron had jumped at the voice but when he saw Hermione stood on the other side of the table grinning at him his heart rate returned to normal.

'I'm trying to find out why that would happen!' he replied, nose still buried in the notepad.

'I won't spoil the surprise!' Hermione said as she took off her cloak, picked up Ron's off the table and put them both in the clock room. She was turning around to walk back into the kitchen when,

'The dirty old sod!'

Hermione giggled.

'That's certainly one thing to call him!' she replied as she sat herself down opposite him. 'Oi you, you haven't said hello to me properly yet.'

'Sorry.'

He leant across the table and kissed her.

'Mum's not been yet,' he said as he closed the book and took another look at the multicoloured mess in front of him.

'No, she won't have, I spoke to her this afternoon asking if she could give us another half hour so we could at least attempt at getting this finished.'

'Ah okay. Well, my first attempt failed miserably, lets try a second.'

He glanced at Hermione and she raised her eyebrows. For the second time he jabbed Hermione's great aunt and she hovered under the movement of his wand.

'Right, lets see…if you won't go on that family table you unforgiving old bat who's obviously had her sense of humour removed, you can go on that one, there's two spaces there!'

Ron jabbed the table across the room and watched as the name became solid again. He was about to get his hopes up when the name and those of three other family members started glowing red.

'Damn!' Ron exclaimed. 'Right, attempt thr-, hang on, there's nowhere else she can go! There's two places left on the school friend table, which isn't going to happen! One space on the Auror table, that would be a memory charm and a half, and that's it! There's no more spaces!'

'Problem, isn't it?'

'Not if we un-invite her it isn't. We could do a simple memory charm and that would be it, the old bag would be none the wiser. Or we could put a fantastic set of wedding memories in her head and she would be happy then too!

'Believe me I thought of it but there's too much scope for complications with all the other family members who she does talk to. One of them might say something that might not tally up with what she'd remember and although she's as deaf as a post she's a stickler for detail. It'd never work.'

'Bollocks!'

'Ron, what have I told you about swearing at home?'

'She's not here!'

'I don't care!'

'Sorry. Won't happen again.'

'Good.'

Ron looked at the parchment again and scratched his head.

'Does your aunt drink?'

'Yes she does. Sherry by the bucketful.'

'Excellent, I have a solution.'

He picked up the pencil that was jammed into the spiral of wire at the top of the notepad and drew three circles just below a line that went from one side of the page to the other, along the top edge of the parchment.

'Ron what-?'

'Ah ah! Wait a sec.'

He put the pencil down and picked up his wand. He jabbed the aunt again, a little more forcibly this time and then jabbed the middle circle he had just drawn. The name became solid and Ron held his breath. After a few seconds nothing had happened and Ron grinned.

'She can sit at the bar! Problem solved!'

Hermione giggled. 'Ron, you can't sit my aunt at the bar, she'll have nowhere to eat her meal!'

'If we plough her with enough Sherry during that…bit…no one has a name for, the bit after the ceremony but before the speeches, then she won't notice anyone else is eating. Get a nice young man behind the bar and he can sweet-talk her through the whole thing whilst continually serving her Sherry!'

'You know, a month ago I would have hexed you for mentioning such a ridiculous plan, but at this stage I'm actually considering it!'

'See it's genius! Everyone wins!'

Hermione's smile slid as her gaze fell from her fiancé onto the multicoloured mess.

'We're going to have to redo the whole thing, aren't we?' Hermione said in a whine.

'No! That is something I refuse to do. It'll be fine, I just haven't been looking at this in the right frame of mind. If I'd known it was gonna be this bloody challenging I'd have looked at it differently. Give me twenty minutes and it should be done.'

'Twenty minutes? You think you can get this sorted in twenty minutes, when it's taken me a week to get this far?'

'Is that a challenge fair maiden?' Ron replied with a grin.

'If you wish to take it as one then feel free to do so young sire, but I must leave you with your challenge, the answer phone's blinking like crazy!'

Hermione stood and walked to the other side of the kitchen where a neat and new answer machine was fixed to the wall, the cordless phone sat in it's cradle next to it. Hermione pressed the large button at the bottom and waited for the mechanical voice to echo through the room.

'You have five new messages…'

'Five!' Ron exclaimed without taking his eyes off the parchment. 'Oh, Merlin! That can't be good.'

'No,' Hermione agreed. 'It can't.'

'First new message, received today at thirteen forty-seven hours…' the broken voice said.

'Hermione, it's your mum, look Sharon's going to phone you this afternoon, she's just got off the phone to me, apparently there's some problem with the supplier she's using and the flowers may have to change slightly. Don't worry about it she'll make them look beautiful whatever you end up using, but I thought I'd just let you know. See you soon. Bye.'

The machine beeped indicating the end of the message.

Hermione sighed and closed her eyes.

'Have we figured out how we're gonna get the flowers from the muggle florist to the wizard venue yet?' Ron asked.

'No!' Hermione said with another sigh.

The mechanical voice announced the arrival of the second message and sure enough it was Sharon the florist phoning Hermione, asking her to go into the shop to discuss the newly arisen problem in the flower arrangements.

'What's the betting the other three messages are filled with wedding problems?' Hermione grumbled, more to herself than to Ron.

'Well, if I was a betting man, which I'm not-'

Hermione snorted.

'-then I'd say you're odds are quite good on that one and I'd be inclined to put money on it.'

Hermione sighed in frustration.

'Merlin! When did everything get so complicated? Why is organising a wedding so bloody stressful? I blame you!'

'What? How come I'm to blame!' Ron asked, dragging his attention from the parchment.

Hermione took a glance at it and saw that there were now more names unseated than actually had a chair and a place to eat their very expensive and very fussy three-course meal.

'You asked me to marry you! If you hadn't we wouldn't have a wedding to plan!'

Although her tone was harsh a smile played at the corner of her mouth and even though she tried hard not to let it take over her mouth, she failed. She grinned at him cheekily.

He smiled at her and turned back to his parchment.

'I'm not going to reply to that! I think it's safer if I get back to this mess.'

The machine beeped again.

'Third message, received today at fourteen, eleven hours…'

'Hermione, it's Rach. Just phoned to ask if there was any way we could rearrange the dress fitting tomorrow. I've just had a client on the phone in a frantic mess and they apparently need to see me tomorrow afternoon. I tried to fob them off, I really did, but it didn't make the slightest bit of difference! Look, if you can't rearrange it – I know it's short notice – then I'll try and come after the dreaded meeting. Again, really sorry! Bye!'

Hermione slumped against the cooker and slid down until she was sat on the floor.

'Rachel, you were the one I could rely on for keeping appointments!' Hermione whined.

'Apparently not!' Ron said with a smile.

'Apparently not,' she echoed.

'Fourth message, received today at fourteen, seventeen hours…'

'Hermione, it's your mum again.'

Hermione's head fell onto her knees and she let out a whimper.

'There's been a slight, er, disagreement shall we say between Aunt Helena and my cousin Joe, is there anyway that you can separate them at the reception?'

Ron's head hit the table with a small thump as he waved his wand over the parchment without looking at it. The last three names he had just placed at one table hovered back over to the list on the right hand side.

'Hopefully that isn't too much trouble. Speak to you soon. Bye.'

Hermione's head didn't rise from her knees as the fifth message was announced and started to play.

'Er, Ron, it's Charles.'

Ron took his head off the table and looked at Hermione, slightly confused.

'I was just wondering if I could see you this evening for an hour or so, there's just a few things I want to go through with you, things about the wedding. As I said, it'll only take an hour or so, but they're important things I want to discuss with you. If you could let me know if you're free. Cheers.'

Ron swallowed. 'You know after all this time and after everything that's happened I still get nervous when your dad asks to see me on my own!'

'Ron, stop worrying. I wish you'd accept the fact that my dad likes you!'

'No, I know he does, I just…you're his only daughter and I'm about to marry you! It's a big deal!'

'Okay, fair enough,' she replied with a smile.

Her smile faded when she realised she had numerous people to ring.

She walked back over to the table and picked up the huge notepad that Ron had been thumbing through earlier and turned to a list towards the back.

She grunted in frustration. 'This list has just grown to twice the size it was! I can't sort the flowers out 'til tomorrow. Rachel can't make the dress fitting, and oh, I forgot to say, the cake's now four tiers not three, and-'

'Four! Why in Merlin's name do we need four?'

'Don't ask! Aah! This is so annoying!'

She folded her arms and she dropped her head on them. She mumbled something into her arms and Ron thought he had misheard her. She thought she had said a word that he thought was off limits.

'Did you just say what I think you just said?'

'What do you think I just said?' she asked, still mumbling into her arms.

'Did you just say the e word?'

She raised her head and looked at him.

'I might have.'

'But…I never thought…I mean, after everything we said…are you serious?'

'When I see messes like this table plan and the length of lists of things that are going wrong, it's sometimes hard to push the thought from my mind.'

'But we can't… …can we?'

'No…no I don't think…no…can we?'

'It would mean absolutely no hassle, no table plans, no relatives we barely know…'

'True, but it also means no parents to give me away, no best friends to share the memories with afterwards. That's why we said no in the first place.'

'Said no to what?' Molly had just arrived in the kitchen and Ron and Hermione both jumped in their seats.'

'Merlin Mum! You nearly gave us heart attacks!' Ron started to shout but soon lowered his tone at the glare off his mother.

'Didn't you hear me shout through after I'd flooed?'

'Obviously not!' Ron retorted.

Molly gave her youngest son another glare and turned her attention to Hermione. Ron stood up and offered his mother his seat.

'Oh thank you Ronnie, but I won't, I'm not staying, the dinner's cooking. How are you Hermione, dear?'

'I'm fine thank you Molly.'

Molly turned back to face Ron.

'What did you say no to, Ron?'

Hermione noticed Ron's ears turn the slightest shade of pink.

'Oh that…nothing really, just…we said no to…no to the twin's offer to DJ at the wedding.'

'Yes well, I've already told you I thought that was a wise decision. The thought of Fred and George being in charge of the entertainment isn't something that fills me with calm. Anyway I must get back. If ever you need anymore time I'm more than willing.'

She looked at Ron and then Hermione and then tears filled her eyes.

'Mum what's wrong?' Ron asked in a shocked voice. He still hadn't quite got used to the fact that his mum could go from perfectly happy to crying in a matter of seconds.

'Oh nothing Ronnie, just being silly, I'm just looking forward to the wedding, it's been such a long time in coming and I know it'll all be beautiful.'

Hermione gave Molly a nervous smile.

'Well I really must be off now. I'll see you two tomorrow.'

'Bye Molly,' Hermione replied.

'Be careful flooing home mum,' Ron said.

Molly dismissed the comment with a wave of her hand and bustled out of sight.

Ron looked at Hermione and knew exactly what she was thinking.

She gave him a resigned smile.

'Back to the table plan eh?' she said quietly.

'Back to the table plan, but first, come here.'

She smiled and stood up. She walked around the table to him and he pulled her into a hug.

They stood entwined for thirty seconds before Ron saw the kitchen door open an inch. He smiled and waited for the inevitable.

Sure enough, three seconds later he felt something attach itself to his leg.

'Hermione, something's on my leg.'

She turned her head so she was looking at him directly in the eyes.

'Yes, there seems to be something on mine too.'

'I wonder what it can be!' Ron replied.

There was a tutting noise.

'Daddy, you are silly!'

Both Ron and Hermione giggled and smiled at each other before looking down at the mass of brown curls that was their daughter's hair.

'Sorcha Claire Weasley you are getting far too cheeky for your own good. I'm afraid I may have to tickle some of that cheek out of you!'

Sorcha squealed and let go of her mum and dad. She set off to the other end of the kitchen. Ron quickly followed, chasing the four-year-old with his arms wide ready to scoop her up. Sorcha squeaked again as she looked over her shoulder and saw her dad coming after her.

Hermione smiled as she watched her fiancé chase their daughter. There was no other sight she loved more than seeing him with her. He adored her, there was no other word for it. The two of them continued to run around her, Ron getting close to Sorcha before comically stumbling, which sent Sorcha into fits of giggles, but still she kept running.

Hermione's glance fell to the multicoloured mess of the table plan and she smiled. She wasn't sure how she'd feel if Sorcha decided to elope when she was older, the thought of missing that special day wasn't something she wanted to think about, she remembered why they had made the decision in the first pace. Family was important to them both; it would feel extremely wrong to do something as special as getting married without them there. It still didn't make her feel any better about the mountain of problems she still had to sort through.

With one final reach Ron caught his daughter around the middle and picked her up easily. He tucked her under his arm, and started to walk around the kitchen like there was nothing unusual about what he was doing.

'Daddy let me go!' Sorcha shrieked.

'Hermione did you hear something?'

Hermione giggled.

'No, I didn't, did you?'

'Mummy, make daddy put me down!'

Ron took hold of his daughter around her middle and easily put her over his shoulder, causing her to shriek even more.

'If she throws up you're cleaning it up!' Hermione said with a 'you know I'll make you' look.

Not wishing to change his shirt – the smell of sick never did leave clothes even after they had been scourgified - he took Sorcha off his shoulder and stood her on the table.

'Did you have a fun day at Grandma and Granddad's?' Ron asked.

'Yeah! Granddad let me help him take apart the Hoover cleaner!'

Hermione shut her eyes and shook her head, smiling at the thought.

'Aha! So that's why there's fluff in your ears! We'll have to get that out!' Ron said with a grin as his index finger advanced on his daughter's ear.

She giggled and pushed his hand away.

'Can I go and watch telly?' Sorcha asked as she looked back and forth between her mum and her dad.

'For a little while,' Hermione replied pulling her daughter to her and carefully picking her up off the table and setting her down on the floor. 'Not too loud though, okay?'

'Yes!'

Ron stifled a giggle as Sorcha ran off into the lounge in triumph.

'I think the last ten minutes put our previous conversation in perspective didn't it? We couldn't do it, could we?' he said with a smile.

'No, we couldn't. I was thinking, we'd be devastated if Sorcha did it, wouldn't we?'

Ron smiled and looked at the doorway his daughter had just walked through.

'Yeah we would. Ah well, this table plan's not going to sort itself out is it?'

'It certainly isn't!'

Hermione stayed standing as Ron sat himself down and jabbed the piece of parchment a few more times. When she didn't sit down he looked at her and gave her a quizzical smile.

'What?' he asked.

She smiled.

'Well if you told me on the night you proposed that it would be nearly six and a half years 'til we actually got round to getting married I don't think I would have believed it! I certainly didn't have a long engagement in mind!'

Ron smiled. 'Me neither, but I think we can safely say we wouldn't have had things any other way, even if they weren't as we planned.'

'True, and I can't think of anything I'd love more than to have our daughter precede me down the aisle scattering petals and waiting with you for me at the other end.'

'I can't either. It sounds perfect.'

He jabbed a name on the parchment and sat it at a table. His eyes widened.

'I've got it!' he exclaimed.

A minute later all the names were sat at the tables and, more importantly, none of them were pulsing an angry red.

'Is that it?' Hermione asked disbelievingly.

'I think it is. No one's angry about where they're sat and there's no one left over!'

'Well, if you're this good at wedding arrangements then I'll have to get you to sort some of the others out too!'

'Oh no no no! Organising people into tables I can do, but asking me to sort out flowers and cakes and…stuff is not my thing!'

'No, maybe not, but you do still have to go and see my dad, remember?'

Ron stomach squirmed a little.

'Do you think if I take his granddaughter, it'll help my cause?'

'Ron stop worrying! It's not as if you're going to tell him you got his only daughter pregnant right before she's about to start her final year of Auror training!'

A grin slid across her face. Ron laughed.

'Merlin that was scary! I don't think I was that scared when we realised we were off to fight snake head!'

'Yes, it was a bit intense, wasn't it? But I think the way he was with you then shows you how much he respects you.'

'Yeah I suppose you're right. I'm still taking Sorcha though!'

Hermione laughed but stopped when she heard her daughter giggling to herself in the lounge. Her smile widened.

'What's the betting she does that through the entire ceremony?' Ron asked with a giggle.

'Well if she's inherited as much of her father's love for giggling as I suspect she has, then I'd say there was a very good chance.'

Ron stood up and leaned over the table. Hermione did the same and caught his lips in hers. Hermione let all the troubles the wedding was causing her fade away, and reminded herself of exactly why she was putting up with them. She loved the man she was kissing and she wanted to solidify the promise they made to each other six years ago.

Her hand played in his hair and he ran his through her curls.

'Muuum, Daaad stop it!'

They laughed into each other's mouth and pulled back from each other. They looked over at their daughter and saw a huge grin on her face.

'Well if she doesn't giggle through the ceremony, we know at what point she'll start!'

'As long as her dad doesn't, I won't mind in the slightest!'

'And what happens if her dad does?'

She grinned at him mischievously.

'If her dad dares to laugh during our first kiss as husband wife, her dad won't be able to walk back up the aisle properly.'

'In which case her dad will be a perfect example of composure.'

…oooOOOooo…

Saturday 9th June 2006

She would definitely remember this kiss. Yes, this was one she would never forget. It wasn't much different to kisses they'd shared before, in fact it was very similar, but normally kisses like this were kept in private, this one however was being witnessed by a lot of people and they didn't mind one bit that they were being watched.

After half a minute they pulled back.

'Told you I wouldn't laugh!'

Hermione smiled and looked over her shoulder to their flower girl stood behind her. She smiled and turned back to look at Ron.

'Told you she would!

Well that was the epilogue to 'Losing Sight of a Heartfelt Dream'. I had much fun writing it even though it took a bit more enegry than I thought it would!

So fics coming up are: The sequel to 'The Seven Ways I Cry', and there are a few more in the pipeline. 'Together Forever' is now my main focus and seeing as though it's going down well it will obviously continue. There's also the fic I'm co-authoring on Live Journal with Solstice Muse, drop me a line if you're having trouble finding it!

Thank you to those who review, it really gave me encouragement to continue, especially when I was having a crisi of confidnce about half way through it. If you could just do it one more time for this one, it would be much appreciated.

Well that's it for now, more to come soon :D

Cheers! Step ;)