The Fourth Year

Chapter Twenty-Two (finale)- Y/n

-Eight Years Later-

  "Honey- help me with Lily will you?"  I asked, bending down beside the highchair and picking food up off the floor, hearing footsteps come into the room.
                   "Yeah, of course," my loving husband answered, picking the spoon up off the ground and washing it off, coming back and feeding our toddler. As he was doing so, I got back up, going over to the garbage and throwing the Cheerios away.
                   "So, Love?" he spoke up, turning his head for a second to catch my attention.
                   "Yeah?"
                   "What time are we going to the reunion again?" he asked, bringing his attention back to our baby girl.
                  "Seven, I think- BOYS, DON'T BRING THAT IN THE HOUSE!" I scolded, seeing both of my boys run past me from their bedroom with a frog in my second youngest's hand, both smiling widely while looking panicked at the same time, nearly crashing into the wall on their way outside.
                   I sighed, shaking my head towards the ground as I watched them scamper out of sight. They are so their father's sons, I thought, letting out a small laugh as I lifted my head back up, seeing him beaming at me while feeding Lily. I gave him a warm smile, coming over and wrapping an arm around his back, leaning my head on my shoulder as he continued to feed our daughter.
                 "What are you wearing?" he suddenly asked after a few moments of content silence.
                 "What do you mean?" I asked, tilting my head as I lifted it back up to face him.
                "To the reunion, what are you wearing?" he answered, giving me a playful nudge in the arm before he resumed feeding Lily, which she didn't like.
                "I'm not sure. I'll probably wear one of my normal dresses, why?" I countered, giving him a curious look while he ignored it, proceeding to give Lily a spoonful of cereal, proving that she liked our regular food instead of the Muggle stuff my husband's aunt gave to us to try by sending it to the floor with a smack of her hand.
                "Just wondering," he told me, shooting me a wink as he bent down and picked up the food.
                "I know you'll look absolutely gorgeous in anything you wear," he flattered, making me grin while rolling my eyes.
                "I'm starting to think that Flitwick taught you more flattery rather than spells in his class because you're definitely more well learnt in that arena than spell-casting,"  I laughed, getting a jokingly-offended expression in response as he came back into the room after throwing away the milk-soaked cereal bits.
                "Hey, I may not be as good as Hermione, but I'm still decent," he defended, making me giggle.
                "True, true," I agreed, giving his back a rub before going outside to see what our mischievous boys were up to. If I was lucky, they wouldn't be trying charms on that frog they just brought in the house while occasionally testing them on each other.
                But how could I be that lucky when their father was the same way back in his Hogwarts years?
               "You ready?" I asked, putting a lipstick in my bag and looking up at him.
               "Mhm," he nodded, holding out his hand.
               "Now, are you sure that the sitter has everything covered?" I asked, getting an eye-roll from my momness.
               "Yes, now let's go before you find something else to check on," he laughed as I grabbed his hand, immediately feeling a rush of air swirling around me and in my ears as my feet touched the ground a second later.
               Apparating is always an event on the mind just as it is for the body and it always takes me a minute to regain my sense of balance and location. I looked around, seeing familiar faces around the room while new ones apparated inside it, smiling once they spotted people they knew.
               Our hands were still connected as we walked around the room, saying hi to people we still knew or had known back in our Hogwarts days. My mouth spread into a wide smile as we both spotted each other from across the room, coming straight over and wrapping me in the hug.
              "Hermione!" I grinned as I pulled back our arms still around each other.
              "It's great to see you, Y/n!" she beamed, wrapping me in another hug. I looked behind her and saw another familiar face trot over, seeing him sheepishly smile.
               "Hi Ron," I smiled, getting one in return as my husband greeted her, embracing her as well.
               "Hey Y/n," he greeted, coming next to Hermione and giving me a quick hug.
               "Hey mate, how's it going?" he asked, looking at his lifelong friend.
               "Same old same old, great to see you," he beamed, wrapping Ron in a brotherly hug.
               "How are you guys doing these days?" Hermione asked us as she wrapped an arm around Ron's back, looking between us. I glanced at him then turned my gaze back to her, releasing a tired sigh that was followed by a smile.
              "Fine, the boys are wearing us out and Lily seems like a breeze compared to them," I laughed, seeing them do the same. As their eyes opened after sharing a laugh, I saw their gaze shift behind me and their mouths widen into huge smiles. I turned my head to see who they were looking at it and I had the same reaction as I turned around completely.
              "HARRY!" I grinned, starting to walk over but ending up jogging and giving him a giant hug, so glad to see him again.
              "Y/n," he sighed into my shoulder as we continued embracing, we pulled apart as I saw Ginny come beside him, wearing a smile as well.
              "Ginny," I beamed, giving her a hug as well. I stepped back, looking at them both with happy eyes as I felt the others' presences beside me.
              "It's great to see you guys!" I smiled, directing what I said towards Harry, but not enough for anyone except the two of us to notice.
              "You too!" Ginny replied with a grin, wrapping an arm around Harry's back.
              "You still look the same as you did back then," I laughed, looking up to see my husband beaming down at me.
              "Just older and more tired," Ginny chuckled, turning to Harry and running his hair through her fingers.
              "And a tad greyer than we used to be," she grinned, releasing a laugh as Harry looked at her, wearing a jokingly offended expression.
              "Speak for yourself," he defended, letting out a chuckle as well as he turned his head back to face us, his gaze firstly landing on Ron.
               "Ron."
               "Harry."
               They both came forward, wrapping each other in a tight, loving hug, patting each other's backs as they parted, making all us girls grin at their brotherly relationship. Well, they really were technically brothers now; they have been for six years. We all caught up with each other as we all made casual conversation, recalling fond memories and laughing while retelling them.
             "So, how are you doing, Dean?" Harry asked, turning to my husband. I smiled, giving his back a rub.
             "About the same. Hours at the Ministry have been lengthy but I always manage to make it home for dinner," he answered, looking down and giving me a smile before bringing his eyes back to Harry.
             "That's good! How's the kids?" Ginny chimed in with eager eyes and a grin. We both sighed in unison, releasing a laugh as we did so.
             "Clever and cunning as always. Too mischievous, but we deal," I replied with a smile.
             "You wouldn't be talking about me would you?" I heard a voice behind us ask, and when turning around to see who it was, my mouth spanned into a massive grin.
              "Draco!" I beamed in surprise, throwing my arms around his neck and wrapping him in a tight hug, feeling him embrace me back. He gave my back a rub as we parted, making me smile at how great things between us have gotten since that relationship snafu all those years ago.
               "How are you?" he asked, glancing from me to the group of other people, who were wearing smiles that their former selves wouldn't have been able to produce in his presence.
               "Hey guys," he greeted, giving them a wave as they all said hi back.
               "I'm good, what about you?" I replied with a grin, looking him up and down.
               "I mean you look well, really well," I added with a smile, getting a playful nudge from Dean that I released a small chuckle at as I saw him give me a look that mildly said, "watch it".
               Through and through, Draco still looked the same, just older. He still had his signature bleach-blonde hair, but unlike his gelled-down Hogwarts days, it flowed freely, showing more wave than it ever has. It reminded me of how he looked at the Battle of Hogwarts, except then it was that way from exhaustion, but now it was styled like that on purpose. He still dressed to impress, wearing three-piece suits seemingly wherever he went.
              Surprisingly, because of our busy lives with bringing kids into the world and the other things surrounding our lives, we hadn't seen each other since he and Astoria's wedding, which was two years ago, even though we do frequently send owls back and forth to keep up with the things going on in each other's lives.
             Same for Harry and I, the last time I saw him was at little Lily's 2nd birthday, which is still comical because he invited our Lily to his Lily's birthday party. But thankfully, to distinguish which Lily we're talking about, we call his Lily "Lily" and our Lily "Roxanne" because her full name is Liliana Roxanne. People tend to refer to her as Lily or Roxy just to keep things easy. But it's hard to keep things easy when you're talking to someone whose kid has the same name as yours. We always joke around, saying that because our Lily was born before Harry's, he stole the name. But really it would be the other way around since his mother's name was Lily and Dean and I just liked the name, not knowing Harry was going to use it a year later to name his youngest.
            "Well I hope so. Astoria keeps me on my feet 24-7, trying to get me to this dreaded thing called, 'yoga' ," he groaned, causing Hermione and I to share a laugh, both of us being the only ones that knew what the exercise regime was. Everyone else gave us puzzled looks, wondering what Draco was talking about.
            "Good heavens, what is that?" Ginny asked in a concerned tone, her eyes widening, which only made Hermione and I laugh to ourselves more.
            "It's this really strenuous and downright useless form of exercise Muggles use. All you do is stretch and try to do these stupid poses, it really is awful. Once, I tripped over one of Scorpius' toys and fell while doing this pose where you imitated a tree. But when Astoria tried it she really looked nothing like a tree so beats me why they call it that. But honestly I could've turned myself into an actual tree with less difficulty," he said in an annoyed tone, all of us sharing a laugh while Ron looked absolutely horrified.
            "That sounds horrible," he gasped, his eyes wide, making Hermione laugh at her husband's shock.
            "Oh it is, but somehow Astoria does it so easily, I have no idea as to how but I've just decided to give up and let that be her thing while I'm reading or in my study," he sighed, shaking his head while letting out a smile.
           "Well that's probably for the best, we don't want you to fall over when giving the tree pose another go and flatten poor Scorpius like a pancake,"  I laughed while the rest did the same, seeing Draco roll his eyes.
           "Always the jokester, eh Y/n?" he asked with a smirk that I hadn't seen in years, bringing flashback upon flashback to our previous years.
            "Compared to you a goblin could be a jokester," I told him with a chuckle, getting one in return.
            "Well, it was really nice catching up with you all but I should go and find Astoria. Nice seeing you again, Y/n,"  he smiled, giving me a hug and kissing my cheek as we parted. I blushed slightly, but not enough for anyone to really notice.
            "Yes it was, we need to do it more often. I'll see you around the party," I smiled, giving him a wave as he walked off. I sighed to myself, turning to face the others, a smile on my face as I tried to push out a persistent thought that's been on my mind since our fifth year.
            No matter what we did or who we married, little sparks were still there. Just like how there used to be., and just like there always will be.
          After all, you can always see it in the eyes.

         THE END