Chapter Eight
A Whole lot of planning

Hermione was over the moon! Today she was being discharged from Hospital. After a month of intensive chaemotherapy and multiple daily tests, and after the sore on her heel had completely healed, she was finally leaving! Although she had to be back every week for more follow up tests, she didn't care. She wouldn't be going into the hospital again for chaemotherapy... well, she didn't think so.

"Now Hermione, I'm going to keep your name on the Bone Marrow Transplant waiting list because... occasionally there are unexpected complications as I know you are well aware. Hopefully we will never have to rely on it, but is a back up. Now, once a week - every Wednesday, you will come back for more tests. If at any time the results show further cancer growth you will need to come back for more Chaemotherapy. But provided you don't have any more cells, it will go down to fortnightly, monthly, and yearly. But to begin with it must be done weekly. Do you understand?" he asked sternly. He did not want Hermione to take this lightly. One week he might be able to detect just a few cancer cells, but undetected, a months later she could be incurable. She needed to understand.
"Dr. Wilson I completely understand," she said, smiling through her hollow looking face, and holding up the giant bag of prescriptions, medications, pamphlets, appointment cards, and contact numbers. It was sitting on her lap, and she was in a wheel chair - being wheeled out by Lisa and Dr. Wilson. They stopped outside and were chatting, the four of them, when a bright orange car drove up to the side of the road in front of them, scraping the wheels against the gutter as it pulled in. Hermione looked up frowning to see who it was, then yelled out "RON! IT'S YOUR PARENTS!!"
Ron smiled, "I know, who else would come and get us?" he said.
Hermione laughed with teary eyes as Lisa helped her out of the wheelchair. Molly was standing with her arms open, and Hermione, about a fifth of the size of Molly, fell into them. Molly gave her a gentle hug, not wanting to crush her bones, and helped her ease into the back seat next to Ron.

One of the conditions for discharge from the hospital was that they needed to be picked up by someone, because Hermione would not be allowed to walk all that way. Getting nervous they had no plan for transportation, Ron had sent an owl home explaining the situation to his dad and asking what to do. Arthur never replied, because a week later Arthur and Molly arrived at the Leaky Phial with their new car. Ron was so relieved to both see his parents, and have a way of getting Hermione home without needing to let slip about their world, that he cried. Molly took her son into one of her healing hugs, and kissed him on his head. "Ron, not to worry. She is doing much better. Your father and I are very proud of you for the way you have handled this. We know how hard it is," she said, holding his face between her hands. The family hugged for quite some time, then spoke about everything in great detail.

Back at the Leaky Phial, Mrs. Weasley had a big pink box on the table with a big yellow bow around it. It was huge! Molly sat in the lounge and said "Come over, dear, we have something for you," and Hermione went and sat down on the floor in front of the box. She thought it might be too heavy to move. She took off the lid of the box and paused, looking over everything. Inside was a pile of muggle Bridal magazines, a wedding planning book, and a photo album containing wedding photos of many people she knew, including sme of her old Hogwarts Professors, Molly and Arthur, Lupin and Tonks, and even Lily and James. Of course her mother's and grandmother's photo was in here, and she smiled at them. They were still muggle photos, unlike the others. It was then that she looked at what was underneath the books and magazines. It was white, and she pulled the magazines out to look at it. Pulling it out of the box was her grandmother's wedding dress. The one she had grown up saying "This is what I will wear when I'm married."

Her mother was worried, of course, because they had no idea where it was. Her grandmother died only a few years ago, but nobody in the family had seen the dress. Hermione had planned to either find one similar or get it made.
"How did- Where was it?" she asked Molly.
Smiling her usual warm smile, Molly said "I think that is a story for your mother to tell you."
Hermione looked back at the white dress that would make her feel like a princess. It was strapless, which back then was quite unheard of. But it came with a lace top that went over it, which was a separate of course. It wasn't a bit poofy dress like the usual dress, but it was nice and fit, made of white silk and lace. When it hit her waist it bloomd out. It was the kind of dress that could fit 10 petticoats under, but looked better without them. Behind her would be a long but simple silk train.
"We will also be taking you out in a fortnight to get it fit, just in case it is too big. And, we will be taking you out shopping to look at Bridesmaid dresses, shoes... oh well everything you want," Molly said.
"Thank you so much... so much!" she said. "I... I've spent the last 3 months waiting and waiting to start thinking about planning our wedding but could never start." She grabbed the top bridal magazine and opened it. There was her next shock! It was old, very old. The dress on the front was the same dress that was in her lap. And on the cover, smiling, was her Grandparents on their wedding day. She remembered her mother telling her the story about how the photographer had been sneaky and sent a photo of the couple off to a bridal magazine, after falling in love with her dress. The editors had decided to run it on the front cover. Flipping through it, she saw different shoes and accessories that would match the dress, and she was finally where she wanted to be, after three months of poisonous medications and hospital stays. Could she be happier?