Hermione looked around at everybody and smiled happily, her cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling. Mrs. Weasley was the first to hug her, then came Ginny, who gave her a tight, squeezing hug. Mr. Weasley congratulated her and gave her a fatherly embrace. Then George picked her up and twirled her around before letting her down slowly in front of Harry and Ron.
They stared at each other for a moment. Their friendship was special and between them there was no need for words. Therefore, they all gathered in a trio embrace, silently holding each other close.
After the congratulations were over and Hermione received and opened her gifts, they all sat to eat dinner. Like usual, Mrs. Weasley decided to feed an entire army so they had a multitude of dishes to choose from. While they ate, everyone talked to the person closest to them, catching up or telling funny stories.
Harry and Hermione hadn't seen Ron for almost a year. After the war ended, he decided to go to Romania and join his brother Charlie.
When he first told Harry and Hermione his decision to leave for Romania, they both thought it was a joke. But soon they saw Ron very serious about his decision. He started reading about many wild and rare creatures and even wrote to Hagrid to ask for more information. His brother Charlie was very surprised as well, but he needed the help so he gladly accepted Ron.
Now, they both took care of dragons and other such deadly creatures. Though it's safe to assume that giant spiders aren't on the list.
"Charlie is sorry he couldn't join us." Ron said. "A fresh batch of dragons just came from Denmark and Ireland. Oh, that and Norbert's babies are driving him crazy."
"Who would have thought that Norbert would turn out to be a female?" Harry said, smiling and shaking his head.
"I bet Hagrid is very happy about it though." Hermione said, taking a sip of coffee.
"Oh, yes!" Ron laughed. "He comes to see them often enough. One of them bit his leg a few months ago and another one almost set his beard on fire."
"Like mother, like babies, I guess." Hermione giggled and they all laughed.
After dinner they all sat around the fireplace, drinking and talking. The atmosphere seemed very calm and relaxed to an unknowing eye, but to those who knew, they could see a bit of sadness in the expression of their eyes. There were many missing from this family gathering.
Bill and Fleur were in France with their kids and Teddy was at his grandmother's place. Tonks and Lupin were absent too, resting now in peace everyone hoped.
But the person whom all missed but no one dared to mention was Fred. After he died during the Battle of Hogwarts it was hard for everyone to mention his name. George, of course, was the most affected one and even now, after 4 years, you could still see him staring in the mirror or looking out the window as if he expected Fred to come home any time, laughing and making a joke about why he was late.
That night was Hermione's birthday party, therefore everyone decided to put aside every sad thought and focused on enjoying Mrs. Weasley cooking and George's stories about his business. Apparently, he still ran the joke shop and the business flourished after the war.
After a while, one by one, they went to bed, until only Harry, Ron and Hermione were the only ones left in front of the fireplace. Ginny was the last to leave them. She kissed Harry goodnight and hugged Hermione one more time, wishing her 'Happy Birthday'. As for Ron, she smacked him brotherly on the back.
The three friends spent another hour talking about their jobs, colleagues and sharing stories about things that happened to them since they last saw each other.
They soon got tired and thought about going to bed. Harry knew he had just a few more minutes to do the thing he had dreaded all this time. He never imagined it would be so hard telling Hermione, but he had to do it. It was now or never. He took a deep breath and started, trying to sound casual about it.
"Narcissa Malfoy came to see me while I was in the muggle apartment." He blurted out, glancing nervously at Hermione.
Hermione gasped and Ron choked with his egg liquor, starting to cough furiously. Harry cursed himself for not finding a better way to introduce this to them. But the sooner he got it over with, the better, he thought.
"What did she want?" Hermione asked in a neutral tone.
"Nothing good I am sure." Ron huffed, after he stopped coughing.
''Well…" Harry began but stopped for a moment.
He gave another glance at Hermione as if trying to judge by her disposition how he should go about it and tell her. He concluded that she seemed in relatively high spirits, therefore she won't have his head for delivering the message.
"She is trying to get Draco to sober up and… she wants Hermione to help him." he said the last part quickly, as if speaking the words faster would have made it easier to relay the message.