132Cappuccino After Eleven
We have finally reached the bittersweet end. If you ever feel for it, this story will always be here so that you can come back to it. I hope that it has meant something to some of you. It has certainly for me.
Also, apparently every time I have written a heart (the 'less than' symbol and '3') the FFnet formatting has changed it to just '3'. Well, well.
TheaMama: Only time will tell. If I see potential in another story like this, then it might as well happen;) Also, you always make me laugh, you're hilarious hahahah
xxxARQxxx: Honestly, your love for the nicknames made my love for them grow bigger. So now they have a bigger role in the story than what I anticipated hahahah
merendinoemiliano: I looked it up on google maps, and wow, you're lucky. Your area looks so nice for hikes and the waters are stunning. Also, thank you!
liak3: thank you so much!
Decisive review: You're the best! I hope you enjoy the last chapter, and maybe in the future, I'll write some more stories. Thank you for being with me on this journey3 (PS that's a heart)
The Very Last Chapter
Epilogue
In the end, they all passed their exams.
Hermione visited the Weasleys during Christmas and returned the next summer to help Ron de-gnome gardens to save up money to visit her family in Arizona next. She had tried to pay for half of the ticket, insisted even, but Harry was right when he'd said Ron was stubborn about accepting money from others, no matter how much he loved them.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts, the headmaster – Albus Dumbledore – received a letter from an American student from Ilvermorny asking for a transfer.
He gladly accepted the request, and especially so after Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Lavender Brown, and Cho Chang all showed up in his office to beg for his acceptance.
Professor Albus Dumbledore had humbly laughed and asked them to return to their dorms. They had returned shortly after, not knowing that he had already signed it.
When Hermione Granger started her first semester at Hogwarts, she continued her excellent academic record, and competed with the best students of every course she attended. Funnily enough, this also seemed to bring Ron Weasley's marks up by another notch.
Draco Malfoy forever steered clear of her in the halls. And his face, if possible, drained of a little less color every time they met in the corridors. And if he happened to walk past them in the hall when she and Ron were kissing, she flipped him the finger every time.
He cringed every time.
Lavender continued to proudly speak of her role in bringing Ron and Hermione together, although it had all been due to their very own cappuccino and tea that had done it. They never told Lavender off, though, and let her keep her bragging rights. It always made them laugh, anyway.
Their friend group kept together for another year, before Harry suddenly opened his eyes to Ginny Weasley, and Cho left. This happened to set off another series of uncomfortable events for Ron, considering his best friend was now dating his sister.
In a couple of weeks, their friend group passed the awkward transition phase of bringing Ginny into the mix, and Hermione found that the group dynamic didn't change a bit. She still missed hanging out with Cho a little, but they sometimes met between classes or for a midnight snack in the kitchens, so it was okay in the end, too.
They graduated.
Ron became an Auror in the same squad as Harry.
Lavender started a beauty salon that did well.
Luna – whom Hermione had seldom talked to while at Hogwarts – came to visit, and to Hermione's surprise, became good friends with Neville before going back to the US.
Neville became a Mediwizard one town over, and came to visit every other week when Hermione and Ron finally moved into an appropriately shitty apartment together. Sometimes he brought Luna, but insisted that they were just friends.
Cho disappeared to who-knows-where and did who-knows-what, and Hermione didn't see her until years later, at their Italian exchange group reunion.
Everyone had been there.
They had spent five summer days in the Italian sun, going back to visit their favorite spots, talk about their favorite memories, get pizza from their favorite pizzeria, and the pistacchio e cioccolato criollo flavors from their favorite gelateria.
Everything had been exactly like back then, and the only thing that had changed, was that they were now some years older. The nostalgia hurt so good, from back then.
A couple years after that, they all met again under the Italian summer sun, and Hermione could tell them all of how, when the day finally came, Ron gave her a ring.
It wasn't an overly flashy ring, and to everyone else's eyes it seemed quite ordinary. But Hermione knew how much it had cost him, from how for months at an end, Ron had looked twice at everything he wanted to buy, just so he could afford this for her.
She knew how difficult it had been for him not to buy that Chudley Cannons Quidditch shirt at the original store. He had touched the material, sighed, then forced himself to return home without it.
She knew how much he had saved up for that ring. The ring that seemed so ordinary to everyone but her and him.
Which was also why she had bought that Chudley Cannons shirt for him when he hadn't been looking. And those special edition Chocolate Frogs when he'd turned his back. And that new Firebolt that he had been glued to the window of the broomstick store to see.
Then he finally gifted her the ring, and along with it, a question.
It came hidden in a letter – a letter that took the form of a fluttering bird –, and when she finally unfolded it with shaking hands, the bird fell apart so that the ring glittered in the sun. The small stone in it sparkled.
She had lost her breath, uttered a single, stuttering yes and embraced him.
The ring had slid easily onto her finger. Just the perfect size. Just the perfect color.
And he had smiled so bright that she swore the entire world lit up with him. It was embedded in her memory – his shining blue eyes, the way the sun illuminated his red-golden hair, how his freckles stood out like soft spots on his pale skin.
She had kissed him then. And he had kissed her back.
It was the first kiss of many over the years.
Until their skin got wrinkles and their hair dulled, and her fingers were shaky with age instead of with nerves. She kept the ring on, even after he had turned dull and grey, and she held his hand for the last time. Even as the rain dripped on his gravestone and he didn't turn any older. Even as he passed away in her arms, with their children having played, grown up, and themselves fallen in love.
Hermione lived another year without him, trying to forget how the world lost color when he had left her. But the memory of the day he gave her that ring still lingered, and whenever it felt hopeless, her mind returned to that moment.
Because in that moment, she had felt his love like no other.
Right then and there, she knew that Ron Weasley would forever keep wearing mismatched socks as long as it would keep Hermione Granger happy.
And they would forever be each other's Tea Girl and Windowsill Boy.
Even when time had severed them apart, that memory kept them together. Because they would be in each other's arms again.
And when the day finally came, Hermione knew it. She could already feel the familiar weight of his arms around her, and already see the twinkle of his eyes, and the feel of that smile.
"I have missed you, my dear."
THE END
A/N: That was it. Thank you for reading, and please leave me a breadcrumb of your feelings in the reviews? Love ya!
PS: I know some of you wanted the last chapter to be 'Hermione meets Ron's family'. I opted for a different ending, but if you'd like to see my interpretation of that scenario, then go ahead and read the epilogue of my other story 'Two Tickets To Rome'. It's close to the same setting, and in the end, she meets the Weasleys;)
Also, the ending turned way sadder than what I was planning. But that's life, I guess.
Until the next great adventure, goodbye, and thank you for being with me during this time and on this journey