a/n This is for all of you that wanted a happy ending/sequal/epiloque. Now I don't know if you're going to get the happy ending you were hoping for because I honestly don't know where this is going to go. It's going to be completely unplanned. Wish me luck and enjoy and thanks for sticking with me.

xxx.:.x.

The sound of rushing water met his ears as he stormed through the intricate expanse of landscaped grounds. It had been three months since he'd persuaded her to walk away from her wedding. She had and promised to owl him when she got settled into her new life. He knew it didn't take three months to get adjusted to a new life.

He'd finally had enough, waited long enough. He was not going to let her control things anymore. He was going to take matters into his own hand. To do so meant he'd go and find her. Leave England for the continent and the unknown where he wouldn't leave until he'd found her.

Across the tiled patio and through the opened class doors he walked. The turning point for him had been a short note that he'd received by owl post as he went for a walk around the grounds. It had been sent by the only other person who had known about the forbidden relationship between himself and Hermione. The note had been pretty self explanatory, saying Don't wait around for her because she's to scared to come back. Go find her. There had been no signature but he knew who had sent it.

It had been the last three words that had thrown him into a panic. Causing him to make a very quick and hopefully not rash decision. He knew to show up on her doorstep would most likely startle her but he hoped it would be enough for her to finally realize he couldn't be apart from her.

Like a thundering heard of centaurs he ran up the stairs. The deep thuds from his shiny shoes coming in contact with the staircase bounced off the walls. He estimated that he could have his stuff together in under five minutes and then he could be off.

He hadn't planned for any problems at home, he'd expected the road blocks to arise when he eventually met up with Hermione in Germany. His mother had other plans.

"Oh Draco I was..."

"Sorry Mother, urgent business to attend to. I might be gone for quite a few days."

"Your Father never mentioned an emergency."

"It's something I'm working on personally through the company, not a joint project."

"Okay," she nodded her understanding. It had been an excuse he'd used countless times before when he had to get away for a bit.

After all of their names had been cleared Lucius had allowed Draco to finally enter the company as his co partner. As for how Lucius managed to escape Azkaban once again Draco had no idea. All he knew was that his future had been looking really grim as he sat in the prisoners chair before the Wizengemot. All of the testimony had been against him. He'd given up all hope until Hermione had walked in and testified on his behalf, going against what every other person had said. With only Hermione's account, the Wizengemot voted in favour of Draco's innocence. He knew that the only reason he wasn't rotting away in a cell was because she had been a member of the acclaimed Golden Trio and the Wizengemot figured that if she was proclaiming a Death Eater's innocence than it must be so. Lucius and Narcissa on the other hand had no such testimony, posing a complete mystery as to their freedom. Draco and the rest of the Wizarding World figured that it had something to do with the extensive vault system in the families name under the streets of London.

"Well where are you going to? Should I tell your Father?"

"No," he barked back impatiently as he tried to step around the woman who was somehow blocking the entire corridor. An amazing feat since she was tall but very skinny.

"Okay, how about...?"

"Just get out of my way," he pushed past her, "it's vital that I get there as soon as possible."

He knew she was trying to stall him, usually she dotted on him. Giving into any of his demands no matter how extreme they were. His only question was how did she discover where he was off to?

In his large chambers he started shoveling anything and everything he laid eyes on into his trunk. Only when he figured he had enough stuff to last him did he close and lock the trunk. Grabbing his traveling cloak which he threw around his shoulders and fastened with the silver snake clasp that had once belonged to his Grandfather. His trunk would fit perfectly once shrunk into the inside pocket.

The next problem that arose for Draco was where he was supposed to apparate to. He knew that the Ministry of Germany was situated in Berlin, but that didn't mean that that was where Hermione was living. She could have been stationed in any number of the large cities throughout the country or any of the small hole in the wall towns. All he knew was that her job posting had been in correspondence with the foreign Ministry. He believed his bet shot would be to go to Berlin, go into the Ministry and ask around. If that failed he would find the Wizard Berlin. He was sure that somebody would have noticed an outsider, especially when she didn't speak the native tongue. The wizard communities were small enough that he knew he would recognize a newcomer if one showed up in London.

With one final look around the spacious room to ensure he hadn't overlooked anything he would need. Pulling out his wand Draco then apparated away.

xxx.:.x.

Up the road she walked, stepping around a small child who had dropped to the ground after dropping it's recently purchased toy wand. As she was passing by the side of the infant its small fist shot out and latched onto the hem of Hermione's cloak, stopping her in her tracks.

"Hi sweetie," she cooed, her heart melting at the sight of the cute little blonde girl.

The girl looked back at her before grabbing her toy and bolting after her parents.

Hermione sighed, she'd forgotten once again about the language barrier. The poor child must have been terrified when a stranger talked to her in words she had never heard before.

Ducking off of the crowded street and into a small restaurant where she was fifteen minutes late for an important meeting with her superiors.

"I'm incredibly sorry, I got lost," she gushed.

"Not a problem, these streets do take a lot of getting used to to navigate through," her co worker Dominic said.

"Well, I'm from London so I should be good at finding my way through confusing roads."

Bringing the lunch meeting back on topic her boss said, "Ms. Granger, I'd like to introduce you to Herr Marc Von Der Berg."

"Hallo, wie sie sind, das land mögend?" Herr Von Der Berg asked the newcomer.

Hermione had become used to not understanding half of what was going on, but it still didn't make her any less uncomfortable. Looking helplessly to her boss for assistance, Alex jumped in and translated, "He welcomes you and asked what you think of the country?"

"Oh I am most sorry," Herr Von Der Berg said, "I just assumed, how silly of me."

"No problem," Hermione laughed uncomfortably.

"We will converse in English then, if that is fine with you?"

"Thanks. It's something I need to learn, it's just so...so different."

The three men surrounding her around the table roared with laughter. Sinking back into her chair Hermione tried to mask her discomfort because she didn't want to look like just one of those stupid foreigners. To make it all worse Marc Von Der Berg was young, probably only a few years older than herself and like most of the German guy's that she had was amazingly hot.

"So Hermione, may I call you that?" Herr Von Der Berg asked politely.

"Of course," she replied.

"Then you must call me Marc."

"Okay."

"So Hermione, before we get down to business may I ask you something?"

"Shoot," he looked at her blankly. His English was almost perfect, but Hermione realized a moment to late that he wouldn't know any slang, "That means talk away," she quickly clarified.

"How much can you actually say in German?"

Now fully embarrassed she could do nothing more than laugh, "Well I can say, Hallo, … Wiedersehen, danke, und bitte."

By now there was no stopping the laughter between the guys at the table.

"It's your fault not mine," Hermione tried to defend herself.

"And how is it ours?" Marc questioned.

"Well first off you guys speak so god damn good English. Whenever anybody hears that I'm English they automatically stop talking in German."

"I thought you couldn't understand it though?"

"I can't, it's just how am I supposed to learn the language if I never hear it?"

"You're right," Alex said, "From now on, we'll only talk in German."

"Slowly?" she asked.

"Ja, langsam."

"You've lost me already."

She loved her job, it was difficult because of the language barrier but everyone was so patient with her. It had been the best decision of her life to get away from England where at work a meeting meant business only. Laughing during a meeting was frowned upon and of course there was one other benefit. There was by no means a shortage of hot German guys.

A waitress came by and pulled out her pad and pen, "Was kann ich für sie bekommen?"

Marc was sitting beside Hermione and he leaned over and said, "She asked..."

"Hey wait a minute," Hermione held up a silencing hand, "I think I've got that one."

Everyone around the table looked at her eagerly.

"She asked what we would like?"

"Ja," Dominic said.

"Well what else could a waitress ask?"

The only thing Alex could do was shake his head.

Everyone ordered and once the waitress had vanished the four people went back to their business. By the time the food came they'd discussed everything they needed to and the files had been packed back into briefcases.

The waitress appeared once more with four steaming plates of food perched on her arms.

"Heiß," Marc leaned over closely to her and whispered into her ear.

"Hot?" Hermione questioned him.

He nodded back.

"I've heard that a few times since arriving."

"I'm sure."

The meal was delicious and because they'd finished all their work stuff they were free to chat about more interesting topics. After they'd finished everyone reluctantly stood up and apparated out of the restaurant to the Ministry. Except for Marc and Hermione.

Hermione thought she was the only one that hadn't left, but when she looked up she was surprised to see Marc waiting for her, "Did you need something?" she questioned him.

"No just waiting for you."

"Oh I'm not heading back to the Ministry," she replied remorsefully.

"No problem, I'll be going then," he turned and was about to walk away when he spun back around, "Do you want to have dinner with me?" When he saw the shocked look on her face he quickly added, "I mean so we could work on your German...or...or..."

She began to panic at that point. She'd just gotten used to being single again. It had been one of the hardest decisions in her life not to owl Draco once she'd settled but she had convinced herself it was for the best. Now was she really ready to get back into the dating scene. Really she had never been in it in the first place. Ron and her had just sort of gone together after the war, and Draco and her I guess you could call it played the game but that had been a long time before.

"Ah Hermione," Marc asked looking worried.

"Sure, after all my German needs all the help it can get right about now."

"Okay then, how about tonight? Oh wait that's really short notice, you're not busy are you?"

Glumly Hermione shook her head, "I'm never busy. If we're being honest here I don't really know anybody. I go from work to home."

"Let's change that then. How about I swing around your place at about six?"

"Sounds good."

"Umm, where do you live?"

She proceeded to explain to him where her flat was and then with an exchange of smiles they both went off in separate directions.

On the way back to her flat Hermione's mind was filled with thoughts of England. It had been awhile since she'd thought of her home, she'd attempted to block all thoughts relating to England because she didn't want to get homesick. Maybe a new guy was just the answer to that. But images of Marc slowly or langsam began to convert into those of Draco. The way his cold as ice eyes still held a twinkle as he would lean into kiss her, or how that perfectly sculpted messy hair of his felt as she ran her fingers through it as he pressed his entire body down on top of her. Shaking her head she tried to rid her brain of the sad thoughts but they wouldn't leave.

Back at her apartment Hermione did everything she could think of to keep herself busy in an attempt to keep her head clear. It worked okay, but still every so often a thought that she didn't want to have would pop into her head. Then she would be reluctantly forced to chase it away. She knew she shouldn't have taken up their offer of the afternoon off. She needed to do something and work kept her busy.

xxx.:.x.

The problem Draco figured wasn't going to be locating where Hermione was staying, it was going to by finding Wizard Berlin. After all it wasn't going to be on any muggle tourist guides map. His plan was to find the Ministry and then pose as a really close relative of Hermione's and try to get out of them her whereabouts. That was plan A but he figured nobody would be to willing to give away any personal information to a complete stranger, so that's why he had a Plan B. Plan B was to find her workspace and wait there until she came. This idea had it's flaws too, because if she wasn't working in the Ministry building itself and was instead out in the field, she would be extremely hard to find.

After he had walked around all of the City Centre of Berlin, Draco finally allowed himself to take a break. A short one though. Sitting on a bench he began to straighten out his options. He could continue to wander around in hopes of finding a clue to how to get into the Wizarding Community or he could owl back to England and get somebody there to tell him where to go. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought to find that information out before he came. Then it hit him, he didn't have an owl. The only way he was going to find an owl to send back to England was if he found the Wizard Community. It was a vicious circle.

Completely out of options he stood back up and went back on his way wandering the random streets.

It had started to get dark and Draco still had no luck. He figured his only option was to give up for the night, find a place to eat and sleep and then resume his search in the morning. Either the German Wizards didn't go out into muggle society often or they were really good at disguising themselves. The few times that Draco had gone into Muggle London he had been able to spot the Wizards easily. They dressed strangely and always managed to look puzzled.

Changing his course he began instead to look for a place to stay. It was amazing what you could stumble over when you weren't searching for it. As Draco was strolling down one of the darker side streets he heard the whispered word Muggle. He'd always thought it to be only an English word, every language would have their own form of the word but he was mistaken for after the whispered word came a spew of words that Draco couldn't understand. Quickly walking towards them before they could get away, Draco had no clue what he was going to say to them, or how he would converse with them if they only spoke German.

When he got closer to the two women they recoiled out of fear and stuck their hands in their pockets that their wands must have been in.

"Evening," Draco greeted them.

"Excuse us," they tried to brush by him but he held out a hand and stopped them, "I'm sorry to have scared you, I just have a question for you."

"I don't know if we'll be able to help you," the shorter of the two women answered in choppy English, "You see we don't know the city all that well."

"No, I wouldn't expect you to know the muggle city very well," Draco through the word in to make them more comfortable.

"Are you...?"

"Yes and I'm looking for your community and Ministry. I'm not from here," he figured that was pretty obvious but oh well.

"Why'd you ever come here and never now how to get into your own world?"

"It was kinda spur of the moment," he explained, "I'd had enough with...well this girl took a job in co operation between the German and British Ministries and she told me she'd owl me when she got settle. That was three months ago."

"That's terrible," they both exclaimed.

Then one of the women said, "This story sounds really familiar."

"What do you mean?" Draco and her friend asked.

"The lady I'm an assistant to came to Germany from England about three months ago."

"What's her name?" Draco asked excitedly. He'd given up on finding his world that day and then by a stroke of luck he'd met two witches that knew how to get into the world but may also know Hermione.

"Frau Granger is what I call her. I think you would say Ms."

"Yeah that sounds right."

"Is that her?" the other asked.

Draco nodded gleefully, "Do you know where she lives."

"I may," she replied as she pulled out a muggle address book, "Here it is, she gave it to me in case I ever needed her for an emergency."

"Thank you so much," Draco gushed as he quickly memorized the address, "So how do you get into your world and where's the Ministry. That's where Hermione is working right, at the Ministry?"

"Ja," the girl nodded.

"Thank you, thank you," Draco had to hold himself back, he wanted to hug the two young women.

"Follow us," they said and then walked off.

Draco raced to keep up with them and at that point it was hard to keep the bounce out of his step. Down a deserted alley they turned and they walked right to the end of it. At the end was a small door that they opened and walked through.

The room they walked through was not a pub like in England, instead it appeared to be deserted. Across the empty hall the three walked. At the bottom of a set of stairs the dirty blonde haired woman who was Hermione's assistant pulled out her wand, "Watch carefully," she said and then placed her wand onto the broken tile floor. One tap on the black tile at the base of the stairs, two on the white beside it and then the next white was given one more tap.

"Come on."

Pushing their way past Draco they then ran up the stairs. At the landing half way to the top they stopped. In front of them a door had appeared.

"Is that it?"

They nodded and then turned the door knob sharply to the right. Once the door was completely pulled open they pushed Draco through. The first thing that caught Draco's attention was a magnificent brick structure that must have been eight stories high.

"Welcome to Berlin's best kept secret. That large building to your left is the ministry. At the end of the street here is the hospital. This street is primarily professional space. The next one over it where I believe you might be interested in. Oh on your left here is the bank but if you have wizard currency that is accepted here. We aren't like the stupid muggles, a different currency everywhere you go."

"Thank you," Draco said although he already knew that fact.

Leading him through the deserted streets they made they turned the corner and everything changed. Music was playing loudly from nowhere. Draco had to remind himself that he was once again safety in a Wizarding World and there was magic. People were out roaming the streets and some were even dancing and singing to the music.

"Now this is the best part of Berlin, our night life."

"I can see," Draco commented.

"There's a couple hotels on this street, restaurants and pubs as well. It's at night that everything really comes alive. One more street over we have all the shops and such."

"Thank you, it's a brilliant idea," Draco had to admit, "In London we have what we call Diagon Alley which is all these shops. Our Ministry is hidden somewhere else in the muggle city and so is our hospital. This, it just makes so much sense."

"Now were you hoping to find a room for tonight?"

"No, I was hoping to go and find Hermione."

"We can take you there, it's on our way."

Backtracking through the small city they made it back out onto the muggle streets in no time. Ten minutes later they had arrived outside of a muggle apartment complex.

"Thank you," Draco repeated once more, "hey what were your names again?"

"Alina," Hermione's assistant replied, "and she's."

"I'm Anika. Will you be fine from here?"

"Yes, thanks again."

"I hope you find what you're looking for."

"I will," strolling into the lobby Draco was amazed at how fancy the place was. Over to the lifts he walked and then remembering Hermione's address punched in the number 14 on the panel. Up into the sky the lift shot and in seconds the door had reopened. Stepping out Draco realized he had to walk to the left. At the very end of the hallway he spotted the door with the correct number on it. In a completely muggle building Draco figured she would have just performed a basic locking spell. He was right because alohamore released the lock with a click. Swinging open the door at the same time the clock chimed, eight times.

Realizing Hermione wasn't home he began a quick search of the place. It was indeed her place because he saw a few of her personal belongings scattered over surfaces. Sitting down to wait on the sofa in the living room he may have dozed off. Waking up his mouth was dry and he walked into the kitchen and found a glass. With his wand in his hand he didn't bother walk over to the sink. Instead he pointed it at the empty glass and it magically filled itself.

Draco looked at the clock and noticed that it read 10:30. Had he really slept that long? At that moment Draco heard the door open. Stepping out of the kitchen his eyes were horrified to see her in the arms of and kissing another man.

xxx.:.x.

a/n Well I promised a sequel and at the time I didn't have a clue what to right about. I thought it was going to be brief, he'd go get her, they'd get back together...you know the usual junk but then as I was writing this things just started to take their own course. Something that hadn't happened at all in Roses and Thorns. That story I knew exactly where it was going to end and what things had to happen. Nothing was spontaneous there. Here on the other hand I was delight to find this chapter began to write itself. It may have had something to do with me going back and reading on of my original stories The Unexpected and the name truly fits that story because I would sit down to write and not have a clue what to do and amazing ideas would come. I found after rereading that that I really missed the unpredictable element of writing and so I sat down and wrote this. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope I've got your attention enough that you'll continue reading and review. Thanks.