Prologue
Hermione Granger brushed her bushy brown hair out of her hazel eyes and stared at her best friend, Draco Malfoy. Eight years old they lived for blocks away and met every day at a park. But on this summer day something would go terribly wrong indeed. The sun beamed down leaving a small sweat on the outside body. "Tag." Hermione shrieked touching Draco on the back and dodging his questing hand intent on tagging her back before racing to the playground. Laughing she scrambled up the ladder and down the slide almost falling down when she was done with Draco hot on her heels. Laughing and shouting they chased each other around the playground until Draco collapsed panting in the grass bordering the park. "Okay…okay." He panted as she came and sat down beside him grinning down at him. "You… you…win." She laughed and stared at him thinking he was possibly the most handsome boy she had ever met. After a while Draco broke the comfortable silence by sitting up and looking at her with a grimace planted on his face. "Hermione…" he stared hesitantly. "Hermione my parents are leaving tomorrow. I don't wanna go. I'm so sorry." In a daze Hermione stood up and wondered into the shade of a huge pine tree that had started to sway with a sudden breeze. Draco did not follow her only stared at her knowing that she would want to be alone. He wished he didn't have to tell her wished he didn't go but once his parents made a choice there was no going back. "Draco Malfoy!" Hermione whirled shouting trying to stop falling tears. "To day is my birthday! You ruined it! I hate you! Draco Malfoy, I never want to see you again!" Sobbing she ran away back to her house leaving Draco to contemplate what a wonderful day it had turned out to be.
Later Draco had an idea. He snuck out of his window in the pouring rain of that night and picked a rose. He knew of magic and had been trained in some of it by his father. He enchanted the rose to never die to stay healthy and remind her of him. He made his way to her house and jumped the white picket fence and her window bathed in the light of her lamp. Swooping he found a pebble kernel sized and after bouncing it in his palm threw it at her window staring up at the pool of light blinking as each raindrop hit his face hoping she would open it. He repeated that several times before Hermione fed up wrench open her window and caught sight of pale figure on her lawn. "Malfoy." She shouted down at him and he cringed knowing how much he hurt her. But as she looked down at him with the light reflecting off of something on her window sill lighting up her face he thought her the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. "Malfoy in case you didn't understand me at the park let me spell it out for you. I. Never. Want. To. See. Your. Face. Again. Never. Ever. Again." And she slammed the window shut and closed her blinds hoping to get young Draco Malfoy not only off of her lawn but out of her head. Exactly three minutes later she tugged open her window and searched for the figure she had come to know almost as well as her own. It was not there instead a single rose replaced him. Sobbing she raced down stairs and out to the rose where she picked it up and cradled it to her chest crying. And back in the shadows watched Draco Malfoy wanting wishing to go to her but knowing that it was best if he forgot about her and she, him.
Hermione Granger sighed. It was her eleventh birthday and her parents woke her up singing and handing her breakfast in bed. But it was a bad day. It had been a bad day for the past three years. Feeling tears silently slide down her face she picked up the rose and cradled it sniffling and watching as it bloomed into a full vibrant red. Sighing and resigning her self to a bad day she pushed the bed covers off of her and jammed her toes into her fuzzy green slippers before shuffling downstairs yawning and stretching. She glanced into the kitchen and then padded down the walk to get the morning post. Four letters had come. Two bills, one birthday card which she hoped was from a childhood friend but really was from her gran, and letter addressed to her knowing which very corner in the room she slept. It was on parchment and she made out a seal with a badger and lion, an eagle and a snake with real wax before ripping it open to read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Scor., Chf. Warlock
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Granger,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy headmistress
Hermione screamed. A flock of birds that had been sitting in a tree above her shot into the air chirping rather rude things while neighbors stuck their heads out windows to see what the matter was. Hermione rushed back inside and waltzed back into the kitchen. "Mum." She whispered. "Pop look." And as her mother took the letter she began to laugh. Hysterically convinced that some one was playing a cruel joke. That was until her mother gasped and bone white showed her father who blanched visibly. "Hermione."
Her father began pulling the still giggling girl down beside him sharing a look with his wife. "Hermione. This is no joke. You are a witch. My great aunt is one, she will, I believe, help us. You have magic dear. Why do think that rose of yours doesn't die? Or when it rains when you cry? You have magic dear and quite a lot of it too."
The next few weeks were a blur for Hermione. She remembered going to Diagon alley and meeting her great Aunt Doris Crockford. She remembered getting fitted for robes and buying books and potion ingredients. She remembered meeting Mr. Ollivander and selecting a wand. 15" maple with a dragon heart string core. She remembered glimpsing a giant in the streets. She remembered returning home and setting about reading her new books. Reading all about spells magic and a boy named Harry Potter who survived a killing curse. She remembered packing shoving her new robes into the trunk along with books. She held her rose and placed it on her on train bag. She remembered arriving at the station with her Aunt and then going through the gate. Then time stood still again for Hermione Granger.
At first on the train she sat alone just thinking staring out the window. Then a boy plumb and clumsy fell awkwardly through the door asking to sit with her. She agreed liking the confused boy's company. They talked for a long while that was until Neville Longbottom the boy lost his toad. He raced from the room tripping over his feet and bumping into people as the train surged on cutting through tall grasses and lakes leaving a trial of steam in its formidable wake. Hermione followed the Neville's idea. Searching every compartment there was. Three times she stumbled into couples kissing. Twice she found people who kicked out at her and generally made her feel bad when she asked.
The third to last compartment she checked held a rather large number of people. Keeping her gaze down she asked in a quiet commanding voice, "Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville lost one." "A toad?" sneered a voice she recognized. "What idiot do you have to be to bring a toad?" With out thinking Hermione lifted her gazed and glared at the speaker eyes flashing as he grinned around at his friends. "Neville is a better person then you will ever be." His gaze flashed back to her and she paled on realizing who she was talking to. Without warning she scrambled away backwards blindly running away from the face that had haunted her dreams. She didn't stop till she reached her own tiny compartment a few tears already tracking down her face. She tore open her bag and sifted through her stuff to her rose which she held to her face breathing in its warm scent and watching it bloom and fold again and again. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped thinking it was only Neville she swiveled and came face to face with Draco Malfoy who was staring at her in disbelief his gray eyes wide with bewilderment. She turned away from him "Hermione." He breathed. And she twisted away backing into the corner. "Three years ago." She croaked hoarsely. "You broke my heart. And now you think I'll just let you come back? For god sakes I loved you Draco and in fact I still do. And you left. And you show up here. God." He collapsed in the compartment door breathing shallow as she stalked by him. But just before she could leave he snatched her wrist and she tumbled into his lap. "Hermione. Wait for me okay?" He whispered into her hair. "I love you too. But you can't you shouldn't be here. Just listen to me. No matter what I say you stay in love with me. Because Hermione these years are going to hurt." He kissed her head again. "Please don't hate me for what's to come. I love you." And then he left leaving her confused hurt and angry. Leaving her wanting to hunt him down and force him to explain and to keep to his wishes and stay away from him.
Eight years today it had been since she made that promise to Draco Malfoy. And still he had not made up for it. Sven years of him torturing her and now more then ever she hated him. She ignored him just as much as he ignored her and she even punched him showing exactly how much she hated him. A muscle twitched in Hermione's jaw as she stood in her shower warm water dripping over her body which had filled out. She stepped out glaring at the clock as she realized just how much time she spent in the shower. She teased her curls they weren't as frizzy and they were more ringlets then anything in to a bun and dawned her dress. A simple work attire dress. Not to showy and was very pleasing to look at even though not much guys did. She snatched her purse and headed out to her job as muggle worker which meant she had to dress like one. But just before she opened her door the bell rang. Perplexed she flung the door open and came face to face with Draco Malfoy. She scowled and slammed the door. He chuckled from outside and called, "Hermione. Open the door." She shuddered and decided to aprate out. But somehow he followed her. So doing the only thing she could she confronted him. "You prat." She hollered in his face. "For one year I loved you. And you did those things and now I don't love you. So just stay away from me." He backed up a bit and blanched visibly but stood his ground. "Hermione." He shouted back. "Do you still have that rose?" She blushed crimson as picture in her mind the beautiful rose in a vase on her bed side table where she would kiss it each night before bed. Then it hit her. She was hopelessly undyingly in love with Draco and nothing any one did or said could stop that. She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to realize he had come so close he was now standing almost towering over her gazing down at her with love very evident in his eyes. Shaking her head slightly Hermione looked up to vehemently deny that fact and found herself drowning in his eyes. The grey orbs held her thoughtless speechless motionless as Draco Malfoy whispered peering down at her face, "Hermione Granger. For about Ten years I have loved you in secret. Now I want to love you in the open. Please," He paused going down on one knee still holding her with his eyes though she gasped. "Please if you still love me then marry me. Will you?" Hermione over come by tears nodded before he stood up and she hugged him. Thus Hermione Malfoy and Draco Malfoy had their frist kid, a sweet baby girl named Rose Isabell Malfoy