A/N: A random drabble that I wrote one day when waiting for seafood.

Roots Beneath Ideals

It was perfect. Everything was perfect. The ceremony had gone off without a hitch. All the bridesmaids had walked down the aisle with the same fake smile on their excited faces. The priest had read through all the vows, not messing up a word even once. And everyone knew that a grand wedding cake was happily waiting in the reception hall in which everyone would celebrate the marriage of the new bride and groom. And all of this is what went through Hermione's head as she stood at the alter.

But then she was snapped out of her reverie by those dreaded words that she knew from the very beginning were coming.

"Do you take this man to be your lawful-wedded husband?"

This was it. Her time had now come. Her final duty in life would be fulfilled. Her parents had been looking so forward to this very second since she was just a tiny infant. She could feel the hundreds of eyes that watched her every movement. Every person clung desperately to the aspect of her next words. This decision not only made a difference to her but, to them as well. Her answer would change everything.

She looked up into the eyes of the man before her. They were blue. Like his. She blinked. It didn't matter anymore. He didn't matter. It was because of him that all this was happening. It was because of him that the entire war had started in the first place. And it was also because of him that Hermione couldn't sleep at night, always thinking back to the days where they had been together. But it was he that destroyed all of that. It was his fault. And so, with a grin, she said, "I d-"

"STOP!" Everyone in the sanctuary, including the bride, turned their head to see who had dared interrupt such an important moment. And then, all at once, Hermione gave out a surprised gasp.

"DRACO!"

He was here. He was here. All of the anger and anguish she had ever felt for him in the past or at that very movement disappeared in that instant. And, without thinking any sort of rational thought at all, she gathered up the ends of her beautiful white wedding gown in her hands and began running down the steps and through the aisle.

Stopping right in front of where he was standing, Hermione's hands went limp of her dress and she smiled. And slowly, tears began to form in her brown eyes.

"You came." It came out in a hoarse whisper when she said it. But she didn't even seem to care. She just couldn't believe that he was actually here. In front of her. In all of his blonde-haired, blue-eyed glory.

"I had to." He spoke simply and softly. And in that moment, any rationality that she might have had left vanished to the clouds. She leaped into his arms and he pulled her tight against his chest and pressed a kiss onto her forehead.

"I love you."

Right then, it didn't matter who she was or the fact that there were hundreds of eyes watching her. They didn't matter. And it didn't even hurt her at all to think that there was a poor man standing alone at the alter, watching his would-be bride in the arms of another. To Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, there was only each other.

"I love you too." And with that, she raised her lips to meet his.