𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎 & 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐓
Act V, Scene III

❝ For never was a story of more woe
than this of Juliet and her Romeo.❞

─── William Shakespeare

"Happily ever after" might have not been the right choice of words. Being happy for every minute of the rest of your life was simply impossible. Yes, the Order of the Phoenix and everyone who had fought on its side had won the battle. Voldemort was defeated. Fred and I had survived the battle, just like many of our friends and family.

Yet the Battle of Hogwarts had left scars on us all. And I didn't mean the physical ones. Seeing the deaths of not only enemies but also our friends so often had left scars on our soul. Even for me, who hadn't actively taken part in the battle except for when I had saved Fred, it had traumatized me, not being able to save all those patients who had been brought into the Great Hall, only an inch from crossing the line between life and death.

But the worst moment must have been when Fred had been brought in. Even though he was with me now, I would never forget what I had felt seeing him dead. My world had fallen apart at that moment, and it still wasn't fully built back together because some pieces of it had changed and didn't fit anymore.

For a few months, our jokes were only told to hide what we really felt, our smiles were only half-smiles and our laughs were faked. But with time, we learnt to joke humorously, smile truly and laugh happily again.

I didn't know how I would have managed without Fred. He was the only person who had been able to make a whole room of traumatized people laugh. He was the only person who had been able to make me smile for the first few months after the battle.

If he weren't with me anymore, I could never have coped. I wouldn't have been able to put myself back together, let alone bring up our adorable daughter who was born on the 28th of December, only a little less than nine months after the battle. We named her Florentine, after my grandmother who was the reason we were a happy family of three people. Florentine had Fred's red hair and my blue eyes which made her the perfect mix of both of us.

Perhaps I should change the "happily ever after" to just "happy". Because my life was a happy life. Of course, there were moments I cried, like the passing of my grandmother, which took part only a few months after my daughter was born, or days when I had a fight with Fred, just like all married couples did. But even the happiest of lives had moments like these, because it was impossible always to be in a good mood.

However, I had my family and my friends, but most importantly, I had Florentine and Fred. With them, I was happy.