Disclaimer: I am not JKR, and these characters do not belong to me, just the plot, but that's better than nothing.

Perfect Mistake One

Catch Me As I Fall

"Trust me," he grinned, holding her hands.

She shifted slightly uncomfortably- she just wasn't… at ease with this kind of risk-taking. "Why should I?" she tried to wrench her hands away but he held fast onto them, but not forcefully, just… firmly.

"Because," he looked into her eyes.

"Because what?" she laughed, pulling her hands away finally.

"Because I love you," he said simply and her doubts seemed to evaporate.

She cast her eyes down and then looked up, "Okay."

"Okay," he repeated, smiling and took her hands once more.

This time, she didn't try and pull away, instead she let her fingers entwine with his as they walked down the quiet road that Saturday evening.

---

Hermione groaned.

"Brittany Weasley," she shouted with her hands on her hips.

"Yes?" the five year old peeked out from behind the sofa guiltily.

"What did you do again?" Hermione said sternly.

"I didn't do it," she squeaked, rushing into her mother's arms. "I swear, it was an accident, I didn't do it on purpose!"

Hermione scooped her daughter into her arms and shook her head in exasperation. "You are nothing but trouble," Hermione commented as she cleaned up the mess on the kitchen floor with a flick of the wand.

"Not true!" the girl protested, struggling in Hermione's arms. "I'm your perfect little bumble bee."

Hermione laughed. "Yes, you're my little bee." She ruffled her daughter's blonde curls. Her heart wrenched slightly as her fingers brushed through the silky silver-white hair that reminded her so much of someone else.

"Hello? Anyone notice that I'm home?" Ron called out, as Bee struggled in Hermione's eyes reaching for her daddy.

"Daddy!" Bee screamed. "You're home!"

"Yes, we all know," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Ron chuckled, kissing the top of his daughter's head. "I always wonder about the hair," Ron laughed.

"My grandma was a blonde," Hermione said, the lie coming easier every time. Well, technically it wasn't a lie because Helena Granger, her father's mother who was now dead, was indeed a blonde, but Hermione knew it wasn't the real reason that Bee had blonde hair. "Things like this sometimes skip generations."

"The only Weasley without the hair," Ron said fondly.

Hermione laughed, her blood running cold. She hated it when they came to the hair topic; it scared her that he would find out.

Find out that Bee wasn't his daughter.

---

"How did we come to this, Granger?" he asked in wonder.

"Beats me," Hermione said, as they lay on the grass and stared up at the stars that littered the night sky.

"I never would have thought that it would come to this," he tilted his head to face her, grinning. "Me and you, lying on some grassy land in goodness knows where staring at the stars, without an argument."

Hermione laughed. "Three months ago I would have told you to check into St. Mungos," she said honestly.

"Seriously, how did we get here?" he asked, propping himself up with an elbow and looking down at her.

Hermione looked into his eyes- pools of liquid silver. "Seriously, Draco, I don't know. You tell me," she admitted.

"Could it be that I am devilishly sexy, insanely handsome, ridiculously rich and completely utterly irresistible to women like you?" he joked to which she choked on her own laughter.

"You are unbelievable," she said, scandalized.

He leaned closer and her giggles ceased instantly.

She shivered and swallowed; her mouth dry. She licked her lips nervously and said," In a nice unbelievable way," she added.

He smiled, leaning in more.

She was a quivering mess beneath him as he placed his arms either side of her face for support as he lowered his head to kiss her full on the lips. She whimpered, her hands finding their way to his face, then sliding up to tangle with his hair.

We are complete, she realized, with each other, we are complete.

She knew at that moment, their lips moving in sync with each others, as they lay entwined on the field with stars as their witnesses, he was thinking the exact same thing.

---

Hermione tucked her daughter into bed, smiling. "Goodnight, Bee."

"Mommy, you promised a story!" she sat up accusingly.

Hermione laughed. "How could I have even thought I could have wormed out of this?"

Bee laughed. "Come on, Mommy, please?"

Hermione shook her head in resignation and sat on the edge of Bee's bed. "What story do you want?"

"Tell me about when you and Daddy went to school!" Bee said eagerly.

Hermione forced a smile. "Alright, sweetie pie, I'll tell you about what a naughty boy your Daddy was."

Bee clapped gleefully.

"He never did his homework," Hermione's voice shook and she cleared her throat. "He didn't like me when he first met me. He thought I was a bossy stuck up know it all. But in the end," Hermione smiled at Bee.

"You fell in love, although you hated each other at first?" Bee grinned.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "We fell in love."

"Tell me more!" Bee protested. "That's barely a story."

Hermione sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you about how brave your daddy was when we tried to save the Philosopher's stone in first year." I'll tell you about how brave your daddy was when he risked his life to be with me. "Your daddy was such a brave boy. He fought with us, the three of us side by side and got terribly injured when we were forced to play with a gigantic wizarding chess set." Your daddy was such a brave man. He fought his own father for me, he faced his darkest deepest fears just so he could hold my hand, and though he failed, he is still a hero in my heart. I thought I was going to lose him forever when he had leave me, but then I realized that he had left me you.

Hermione closed her eyes against the pain. "Bee, Mommy's very tired, I'll continue the story tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright," Bee said meekly and pulled the blanket over her head as Hermione stood up. She waved her wand and the lights went out.

"Goodnight, sweetie," Hermione closed the door and closed the gaping hole in the heart that no one else could fill.

---

Winter

Seventh Year

Hermione grinned up at Ron as they stood in the snow.

"You have a snowflake on your nose," he pointed out and she laughed.

She stiffened as he leaned down and kissed the tip of her very cold nose with his warm lips. The snowflake attached itself to his lip and melted.

She had a feeling that in his arms, she was supposed to melt like that snowflake but why was it, she wondered, that she only froze more?

Ron smiled.

She forced her lips upwards to smile back.

"I love you," he intoned clearly, staring into her eyes and Hermione's mind went blank.

"I love you too," her voice returned when inside, she was screaming in despair.

He gathered her into his arms and Hermione stood there, thrown off-balance and confused, once again, and wondered why she always ended up where she was supposed to be and not where she wanted to be.

A/N:

Bee, Hermione's daughter's nickname in this fic is a nod to Bridget Vreeland's nickname Bee in the series of books The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. (: just wanted to point that out.

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tell me what you thought, as well as check out my other fics- Catch a Falling Star and Stained over at my author page. If you pop over to AdultFanFiction archive and search the authors for "lissie" you'd find me and you can read my baby (my very first fanfic and my masterpiece) A Piece of Forever which i'm going to finish once AFF is properly fixed. (: remember to review while you're there too.

-lissie