Hermione's Ending

Exactly 18 days had passed since little Rose Weasley left her home in the village of Ottery St.Catchpole to attend her first year at Hogwarts. Her mother, Hermione Weasley, was calmly sitting on a rocking chair, on the patio outside her home, which was located next door to the Weasley's Burrow, in her hands was a thick, large, dusty book, which contained some of the most precious memories of Hermione's life, out of all of Hermione's book collection this was the only book that did not contain any sort of writing or text, it was in fact a photo album, and inside it were over a hundred moving pictures which showed the life of Hermione since she first discovered her magical abilities. On the first page was a large photo of herself, her husband Ron, and their best friend, Harry Potter. Hermione smiled to herself, it didn't seem so long ago since she was attending Hogwarts, and yet it had been nearly twenty years.

A faint noise was heard in the background, a door swung open and footsteps followed. The red-haired man in his mid-thirties leant over his wife, kissed her on the cheek and then said the three words that she had been waiting to hear all morning, "Happy Birthday Darling."

He passed her a small envelope, Hermione opened it and gaped at what was inside, she pulled at a ticket to visit a seer, and then looked at her husband to see if he was playing one of his jokes on her. "Don't you like it?" he asked her, from this Hermione knew that he was in fact being serious, and this made her somewhat upset, but she decided not to let it show, she smiled broadly and then hugged her husband tightly before looking at the ticket again. "I was a bit worried at first, but it was all Rosie's idea, she said that you deserved a treat now that you have decided to become more open minded about a lot of things," Ron chuckled.

"Oh no I love it," Hermione put on her best fake smile.

"Oh Rosie will be pleased about that, and I was thinking maybe I'll take you to visit this seer now."

"Now?" Hermione seemed a bit taken back.

"Well why not? It's not as though we have anything else to do is it?" Hermione thought for a brief moment before agreeing to the idea. As soon as she entered their bedroom, she sighed deeply, it was her 38th Birthday, and her family had brought her a ticket for a free session with a seer, after 16 years of marriage she thought that Ron would know her a little better than to book a session with a seer and then make her listen to the utter nonsense that she or he will come out with. She always hated these types of things, Ron should have known that, didn't he notice her hate for transfiguration at Hogwarts??

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Hermione gave out another sigh, she and Ron were now next in line to visit the seer, and when an old woman came bustling out through the curtains crying, Hermione knew that she would be the next person to walk through those horrible curtains. Her stomach lurched as her name was called out. She entered the dark room alone, as Ron said he would rather just wait outside for her, a woman in her late sixties, with greying hair, and a face of man looked at her calmly and asked her to sit down. Hermione obeyed.

The old woman took her hands in her own and smiled. "Do you know how Rose is doing?"

Hermione seemed taken back at this question, how did this woman know her daughter's name? "She's fine."

"And by the way, Happy 38th Birthday," Hermione smiled at the woman.

The woman then closed her eyes and began whispering a chant. An uninterested Hermione casually looked around her dark surroundings, before her attention was broken when the woman began to mutter words that had great meaning to Hermione.

"You have a dark secret Mrs Weasley," Hermione shifted in her seat, "a dark secret that you only share with Mr Draco Malfoy," Hermione's eyes grew wide at that name, her breathing stopped, and for a split second her heart stopped beating, "I can see a boy, brown haired and blue eyed ... Alex." Hermione immediately snatched her hands away from the old woman, her eyes filled with tears that threatened to fall, she stood up not quite knowing how to react to the old woman supposedly knowing her darkest secret. "I'm so sorry," the old woman began, "I'm so sorry for the loss of your first son." Hermione looked horrified, she turned her back on the woman and immediately ran out through the curtains and out through the door into the fresh air. She could hear Ron calling after her, but she didn't care, she needed to get away from all this, there was only one place that she could go to get away from all this, Godricks Hallow.

She apparated to the graveyard at Godricks Hallow, and searching through the rows of headstones, she headed to the one that was right underneath the large oak tree. However, she stopped in her tracks as she noticed that someone else was already there, HE was there. She slowly crept up behind him, but he could already feel her presence there. They both stared at the headstone in front of them, Thomas Gardener.

"I didn't think that you would be here," Hermione started.

"I'm always here Granger," he answered back at her.

"It's Weasley now," he turned and stared down at her. She stared into those grey eyes, and all the feelings that she had for him returned in that one moment. Draco reached for his wand, and with a flick, the writing of the headstone changed, it now read a different name.

Alexander Beau Draco Malfoy,

Born on 24th March 1996,

Died on 25th March 1996,

"We don't like to say goodbye to those we love"

Hermione stared at the headstone, tears now freely falling from her brown eyes. Draco could hear her quiet sobs, and it broke his heart, he decided to break the tension that was building between them, by asking the question that had been on his mind for the last twenty years.

"Do you ever think of what it could have been like if he was still alive?"

Hermione stopped her crying and looked at him straight in the eyes, "yes," she nodded, "but it wouldn't have mattered Draco, I would still be with Ron, and you with Sophia-"

"How do you know that?" Draco snapped a little harshly than he had intended to.

"Because nobody would have accepted us Draco, we both knew that from the start. If Alex was still alive, we had planned that he would have to be put into care under a charm to change his appearance, no one was ever meant to know that we had a relationship Draco let alone a son." Draco simply stared at the ground littered with orange leaves, he knew what Hermione was saying was true, he just didn't like it.

"Yes, but I had a different plan for us, I wanted us to get married and start a new life somewhere else, I wanted a proper family with you Hermione, but you never allowed that ... you never gave me a chance," he said the last bit with bitterness.

"Maybe ... maybe this was just meant to be."

Draco stared at her and nodded in agreement, "maybe you're right," Draco bent down and kissed her on the cheek, "Happy Birthday Hermione," he whispered in her ear, his hot breath against her own skin suddenly made old memories flood back to her.

"Bye Draco," and with that Draco suddenly apparated leaving Hermione alone in the graveyard, for a few moments Hermione just looked at her surroundings before bringing her attention back to the headstone and completely breaking down into sobs. After what felt like an lifetime where all she had done was cry, Hermione picked herself off the floor, she conjured up some flowers before placing them in front of the grave, with another flick of her wand, the writing quickly changed to it's original state reading Thomas Gardener.

Hermione decided that now was a good time to go home, Ron would have been worried sick about her. When she entered her house she was bombarded with questions of where she had been all afternoon by Ron, she made her excuses and then went into her bedroom to fall into a deep sleep.

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Hermione's Dream (retelling hers and Draco's story)

It was now the end of summer, a couple were happily playing in the sand at Brighton beach.

"Hermione, come back here, I'm going to get you for that!" a young Draco Malfoy called.

"Ooooo I'm so scared," Hermione put on her best fake frightened look, before being chased around the beach by her boyfriend. Draco tackled her to the ground before smothering her in kisses, Hermione simply giggled underneath him.

Draco stopped to look into her beautiful, chocolate brown orbs. "I could marry you you know," he said dreamily, Hermione smiled up at him, her hands softly tracing his jaw line, and then letting them get lost into his white-blond hair. "Hermione?"

"hmmm," Hermione closed her eyes, letting herself slowly fall asleep in this perfect moment

"Will you marry me?"

Hermione's eyes shot open, her shocked face scanned Draco's just to see if he was joking, when she saw his anxious face, she broke into a smile and replied "YES!" Draco grinned back, before resuming back to kissing her.

It had now been a couple of weeks since Draco proposed to Hermione, they were now both in their sixth year at school, and they had both got into their characters to pretend that they still hated each other. Words like "go away know-it-all" and "ferret" were frequently heard in the corridors of Hogwarts, but when it was night the two would meet in the astronomy tower and act as though the day of abuse taunts at each other hadn't happened and they were now the couple in love that they were. Tonight, however, Hermione had some unexpected news to tell Draco. It was already a very special day for her as it was her seventeenth birthday.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Draco asked looking at the girl lying down beside him. Hermione shifted uncomfortably but continued to look at the stars above them. Draco sat up on his elbow to get a closer look at his girl, "you hardly touched the dinner I made tonight," Draco rubbed his hand against her arm sending shivers down her body, "you know you can tell me anything."

Hermione turned away from the stars to look at Draco, "Draco ... I'm pregnant," she said nervously, she twiddled with her fingers while she waited for his reaction.

"You're pregnant?" she nodded, "and you're sure?" she nodded again, Draco looked deep into her eyes before breaking out into a grin, "that's fantastic!"

"So you're not angry?"

"Sweety, why would I be angry?" Draco lightly grazed his nose against hers, "you just made me the happiest man alive," and with that he kissed her more passionately than he had ever done before.

A few more months had passed, April was about to begin soon, Hermione and Draco were happier than they had ever been before, at nightly meetings they would talk about the baby, THEIR baby, it brought them so much joy to their lives knowing that the baby would arrive soon, the expected date was 2 May. Of course nobody knew that Hermione was pregnant, she used all her magical skill and knowledge to cover up her now large baby bump.

It was one particular night on 24th March, where things just went horribly wrong, Hermione and Draco were lying down on blankets in the Astronomy tower, they were staring up at the stars like they usually did, they enjoyed making shapes and images out of the located stars.

"See you can just make out a lion there," Hermione pointed out into the sky.

"It's a snake," Draco argued, he held up her finger and then made an imaginary image in front of them.

"Lion"

"Snake"

Hermione giggled at the argument that she and Draco were having when she suddenly felt sharp pains coming from her abdomen.

"What's wrong," Draco asked, immediately noticing that Hermione was clutching her stomach.

"Draco, take me to Madam Pomfrey now," Hermione said worriedly. Draco did as he was told, he carried Hermione down the many steps and then ran into the Hospital Wing, urgently calling Madam Pomfrey to look at his Hermione.

Madam Pomfrey examined Hermione before concluding that Hermione was to give birth as soon as possible. Draco was there by her side through all of this experience, clutching her hand, and encouraging her to go on. It was about 11.58 when a little baby boy had been delivered, Draco kissed the top of Hermione's head, he was so excited to finally see the son he had been waiting for. Madam Pomfrey was on the other side of the room, cleaning up the baby.

As a minute passed on Hermione was getting more worried, why wasn't the baby crying yet, why couldn't she hear any cries, she grabbed hold of Draco's hand and continued to wait. After a few more seconds, Madam Pomfrey returned with a small baby inside layers of blankets. The old woman looked grave, she looked at the baby and then at Hermione and Draco. Hermione some how knew what the lady was about so say but could not handle to hear it.

"No," Hermione shook her head at the expression on Madam Pomfrey's face, she looked at Draco and then back at the lady, "No." Draco seemed confused at Hermione's reaction.

"I'm so sorry," Madam Pomfrey's eyes began to fill with water, and suddenly it hit Draco like a brick as to what was happening. Madam Pomfrey slowly passed the baby into Hermione's arms, the baby wasn't crying, or moving, or even breathing, their baby was dead. Hermione stared at the baby boy in front of her, and then broke down into loud sobs, Draco too, unable to handle this news began to cry silently as he hugged Hermione harder than he had ever done before.

Losing Alex took a toll on both Draco and Hermione, their school performances changed dramatically, their nightly meetings had been cancelled and they grew very distant, therefore they decided to end their relationship. It was the hardest thing that both of them had ever done, yet they both knew that it had to be done, nothing could bring them back together now. They had both decided to bury Alex at Godrics Hollow, the place where he was conceived and held so many memories for Draco and Hermione, the only other person who knew about Alex except themselves was Madam Pomfrey, but she swore to the couple that she would not spread their secret.

A couple of more months had passed, school was about to finish, and on one evening, Draco had hurridly planned to meet Hermione one last time on the Astronomy Tower.

"Come with me?"

"What?" Hermione said shocked.

"We can start a whole new life together, we can properly get married, and we can have dozens of kids, a family of our own," he tenderly stroked her cheek as he said the last bit. Hermione looked at Draco, from the expression on her face, Draco knew that her heart was breaking over her decision, and finally she shook her head no. Draco felt as though a knife had been turned in his heart, he backed away from her momentarily, Hermione held on to him though.

When Draco finally collected his thoughts, he did the most unexpected thing, he kissed Hermione square on the lips, this time however was different to Hermione, there was something in that kiss that she could not put her finger on. "I'm sorry," he spoke against her skin.

"What do you mean?" Hermione spoke.

Draco cradled her head in his hands and weakly smiled at her, "just remember that I will always love you, always" and with that he took off and left Hermione on her own. It was only the next day that she knew what Draco had meant, the news that Albus Dumbledore was dead was a shock to everyone, but in the pit of her stomach, Hermione couldn't feel anything else but happiness at the news that her beloved Draco didn't do it. And then his last words kept repeating themselves in her brain, the fact that he would always love her.

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Hermione slowly awoke from her dream, she got up from bed and then checked the clock, it read 2.30, it was only 2.30 in the morning! Hermione quickly got dressed and ran outside from her house, she checked to see if anyone was around, the coast was clear, and then she apparated to outside Malfoy Manor.

She knew that he would be awake at this time, he was never the one that loved his sleep. She quickly banged on the door, as rain began to pour down on her and seep through her clothes. After a few more loud knocks, the door opened, and when she saw him she was breathless, but he decided to break the silence.

"What are you doing here?!" he shouted above the noise of the storm above them.

"I've come to give you a chance!" she shouted back.

"A chance?"

"I want to start a new life, you know, get married, have kids, a family," she smiled, she didn't care if she was making an utter fool out of herself in front of him. Draco studied her carefully, not knowing what to do.

He finally looked at her, and smirked, "I thought you'd never ask," and with that he scooped her up into his arms and kissed her. He didn't care that she was wet, or that his own, expensive robes were getting wet too. The two stood there for a long time, kissing each other in the rain, it was as though it was a scene out of the many muggle films that Hermione loved, and it was of course a happy ending.

THE END

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