This is a one shot that has been keeping me from making progress on my now… three stories I've been working on.. Canon compliant, excluding epilogue

Here you go little plot bunny… enjoy!

Hermione Granger sat fingering the gentle curls that cascaded down her back. After Voldemort's defeat Hogwarts had been closed for a year to repair the damage done in the battle. The following year everybody had been invited back, including those who missed out on their Seventh year and NEWTS. Mostly everybody had taken Headmistress McGonagall up on her offer, including a great percentage of the Slytherins. It had been a tense few weeks early in the term, but it had been a healing process that needed to occur.

Amelia Bones had been key in allowing that to happen. As Minister of Magic, she exonerated a great number of the younger Death Eaters, assigning them community service in what she called the 'Great Experiment'. There had been months of trials during the year Hogwarts had been closed, and most of the younger children recruited for the final battle acknowledged that it was their parents who seemingly took away the choice of whether or not to take the mark or not.

When it was discovered that Narcissa Malfoy had been the one to deceive Voldemort, allowing Harry to regroup and destroy the wizard she had received a citizenship award for her role in defeating the Dark Lord. This Ministry sponsored forgiveness, as well as McGonagall's strict no-tolerance policy towards discrimination helped the young witches and wizards of Britain mend the ties broken by war. Comprehensive unity sessions and wand-free open 'chats' helped the older students share their tales, and rarely was there a dry eye in the room after some Slytherins shared how they had been tortured into compliance with their parents wishes.

This was not to say that deeds went unpunished. Many of the older generation still ended up in Azkaban, as they were deemed to have willingly complied, rather than agreeing by force to join with the Death Eaters. However, Harry had said it best, during his speech at the 6th month anniversary ceremony.

"We all know the past we have come from, and we all know the future is uncertain. I cannot give all of the reasons why Tom Riddle turned out the way he did, but I do know that many years ago a broken and lost boy turned up at Hogwarts, searching for family he never had. He sought acceptance from his peers, and protection from the adults around him. He likely felt that nobody cared for him, nobody noticed the pain he endured while outside of Hogwarts, and that the only way he would get people to notice him was by force. It is this same tragedy that we must avoid. It is why I endorse Madam Bones' resolution to exonerate many that fought in that final battle. We do our society no favors by turning yet another generation of lost souls into followers. This society that never fully healed from Grindenwald must heal today, lest the events that led to the Battle at Hogwarts repeat themselves with yet another generation."

There had been applause and shock. Here was the Boy-Who-Defeated, wishing to grant forgiveness to all but the most egregious of Death Eaters. The world shook on its foundation that day, and the Golden Trio broke just a little.

Sure, Hermione, Harry and Ron continued on as if nothing had happened, and Harry started dating Ginny in earnest. Hermione too, began dating Ron. She resisted the urge to go as far in their relationship as he wanted, saying that she wanted to hold back just that little piece of herself, for her parent's sake. However, there had ben tension between the group, and by the end of the school year the fights that Harry and Ron would have in the sanctity of the common room had become epic. Still, Hermione continued to date Ron faithfully and tried to mend the broken ties between her two oldest friends. She had been most determined to make it work with Ron, despite his crumbling friendship with Harry. Now, three years after graduating from Hogwarts, and one year after earning her Mastery level in both Transfiguration and Ancient Runes, Hermione sat at a vanity looking at herself in the mirror.

The last of her baby fat had long since melted away, revealing a slender frame that had been the envy of many a witch in her Mastery classes. Taking the Mastery classes, she had finally created a spell that controlled her unruly curls, and now they more closely resembled waves than the bushy hair she had on top of her head most of her life. She looked down at her porcelain hands at the thin gold band containing a single diamond solitaire she had gotten from Ron. He had been mistaken in thinking that since he was engaged to her, he was entitled to her body. She had dismissed him of that notion, threatening to hex his manhood away if he tried to force himself upon her before she was ready for him.

Truth be told, after dating for a while she had no idea why she didn't want to give herself to him. She knew that the arguments between Harry and Ron about the former's forgiveness and subsequent befriending of Draco Malfoy had something to do with it. Ron was upset that Harry was not fighting to have anyone who even thought about being a Death Eater put into jail, and Harry continued to argue that everybody deserved a second chance. Ron had called Harry foolish for not having the whole lot of them jailed, and Harry retorted that Ron was too quick to exchange the word Slytherin for the title Death Eater. The fights had gotten ugly, and Hermione refused to become a part of them. It had put a strain on her relationship with Ron, and her friendship with Harry, but she still managed to be close to them both, even if they weren't close to each other anymore.

Still, Hermione surmised that it was Ron's unwillingness to forgive, and his stubbornness change his mentality that put the block in her mind. Some part of her couldn't abide willful ignorance. Even when planning the wedding, when Hermione mentioned that Daphne Greengrass would be one of her bridesmaids the pair of them had a row about it. Ron called her a 'slimy Slytherin', and Hermione reminded Ron that Daphne had been her classmate in her Mastery classes, and the two of them were good friends. She didn't mention who else had been a classmate of hers, but mentioning Draco Malfoy's name was asking for trouble when it came to Ron.

But still, Hermione agreed to marry Ron Weasley, and she now sat putting on the finishing touches on her makeup, trying to stall as long as possible. In several hours time she would be Hermione Weasley. She hoped that she would be able to work for a while before gifting Ronald with their first child, but that idea had caused yet another row between them so Hermione had put the idea out of her head. It crept up from time to time, sitting at the back of her thoughts whenever Ron talked about his plans for them, which included building a house next door to his parents, so that they would always be close to the Burrow. She hadn't liked that idea, but once again there had been a row, and Hermione had given up on the idea of living in the country in one of the houses Harry had wanted to give her as a wedding present.

Hermione sighed. She was too sad for her wedding day. It felt more like she was losing her freedom, but most of her school-mates had long gotten used to her as 'Ron's girl' that it seemed inevitable. She heard a knock on the chamber door, and waved her hand, having learned simple wandless charms she wouldn't dare use around Ron, since he had been unable to pass the qualifying test to get his Mastery in anything but Care of Magical Creatures.

Hermione heard a sharp intake of breath behind her. "You look beautiful"

Hermione turned around and looked into the emerald green eyes of her oldest friend.

"Thanks Harry. How are things with you?"

Harry stood tall and muscular. His hair was still as unruly as ever, but he had been able to get his eyesight corrected and no longer needed the glasses. It had turned out that having Voldemort's horcrux in his body caused him to be stunted in growth, so he had grown quite a lot over the passing years. Harry ran an absent hand through his hair and sighed.

"Things have been going. I made Auror First Class, and so I start my practicals pretty soon."

Hermione smiled. "So you're not taking that post at Hogwarts to teach DADA?"

Harry shook his head. "I want to travel the world for a while first. Besides, Neville is a natural."

Hermione nodded, and subconsciously fingered her ring. "Have you spoken to Ron?"

Again Harry shook his head. "No. He won't return my floo calls, and my owls go unanswered. I think he's still sore I broke up with Ginny."

Hermione nodded. "Why DID you break up with Ginny?"

Harry sighed. "Something wasn't right. I mean, she's cute and all, and beyond the initial attraction I didn't feel anything. At first I thought it was because of my stress with Voldemort… thought I was subconsciously keeping her distant. But then we went back to Hogwarts and it was the same problem. I realized I was dating her because I was comfortable around her, because she was familiar." Harry ran his hand through his hair again and looked back up. "I don't know why he's being such a git about it… we broke up before winter holiday!"

Hermione nodded. "I think he saw you as good for her. She tends to hang around people he doesn't like."

Harry laughed, but there was no mirth in his eyes. "You mean the fact that she's engaged to Blaise now? Please. Blaise has had a crush on Ginny since OUR sixth year, at least. He could show her all the feelings I couldn't."

Hermione sighed. "So what brings you here?"

Harry walked over to stand behind Hermione and began massaging her neck. "You."

Hermione stilled. "Me?"

Harry nodded. He leaned down and kissed the hollow of her neck, making her squirm slightly. He then lifted up his head and whispered in her ear. "I know you don't want to marry Ron, but you don't feel like you have a choice."

Hermione's eyes flew open. "Wha?" She whirled around to face her friend. "I do want to marry Ron."

Harry looked Hermione in her eyes. "Do you LOVE Ron, or is it that you're used to him?"

Hermione opened her mouth, and started to protest, but her heart wasn't in it. She lowered her eyes and focused on her hands.

"Look at me Mio. You don't have to marry Ron. There is no requirement. Heck… the Trio is already dead. Nobody is forcing you to try and keep us tied together. "

Hermione nodded. She looked at the dress she had picked out, and thought about all the hand-made invitations she had made with Ginny, and all the work that Mrs. Weasley had done cooking for the guests. A small tear trickled down her face.

"Awh! Don't cry Mio!" Harry's hands continued to massage the knot in her neck that Hermione hadn't even realized was there. "If they make a big scene about you doing what makes you happy, than you shouldn't have married Ron anyway."

Hermione smiled sweetly. "Thanks Harry. But I don't even know if… I mean it's just my curiosity more than anything. He probably doesn't like me."

"Who doesn't like you?" Daphne Greengrass queried, entering the room

Hermione started. "Hi Daph!"

Daphne Greengrass stood glowing in her formal dress robes. The dark red stood out elegantly against her pale skin. Hermione sighed. She had wanted purple as the colors for the wedding, with accents of silver. Ron had wanted the bright orange of the Cannons. Hermione had flat our refused, and the compromise ended up with Gryffindor colors. It was unusual to see Daphne in any colors other than green, blue or purple, but two bribes later and Hermione had her maid of honor.

"Mione, who doesn't like you?" Daphne asked again, warding the door against intruders.

"It doesn't matter. It's too late now." Hermione sighed. After all this talk, her heart wasn't in getting married today. It was just something she had to do. She would get over it, and she would get used to the idea of being Mrs. Hermione Weasley.

"Is everything ready? " Hermione asked

Daphne nodded, her eyes flooding with concern. She had only known Hermione as a friend for about four years, starting back the summer Voldemort was defeated. She looked at the man who had been her friend for longer, and saw a look in his eyes she couldn't quite place. Harry moved over and conjured a chair, sitting down in it and turning Hermione around from the vanity to face him.

"Are you ready?" It was more than a whisper, but both Daphne and Hermione heard it. Hermione raised her head and looked into the deep pools of emerald.

"You aren't." It was a statement, not a question. Harry stared into the impossible depths of those brown eyes, flecked with bits of gold, and saw something that broke his heart. Despair.

Daphne watched, feeling much the interloper, as the two seemed to communicate silently. As long as the two of them had been friends, practically attached at the hip for as long as she could remember, it was possible.

Harry's voice was no more than a whisper. "I can't let you marry him, Hermione. I can't let you give away your future to somebody who can put that much pain in your heart. A man who can give you that look, Hermione, doesn't deserve to ever touch you. Even if he was my best mate."

Daphne looked at Hermione, and saw the unshed tears hiding behind her thick brown eyelashes. She put a careful hand on the witch's shoulder, and felt her roommate shaking.

After what seemed like an eternity, Hermione whispered, almost too quietly. "I have to. He loves me."

Harry grasped Hermione's hands in his and ran soft circles on the back of them. "No."

"No?" Hermione looked into Harry's eyes, trying to see what lay behind them.

"Hermione, I've been watching you. We've been friends for years. When I used to look in your eyes, there was fire. I used to think it was just a passion to learn, but then we went and searched for the Horcruxes, and I realized it was a passion for life. Even when we were captured by Bellatrix, even in the face of certain death. When you started studying for your Mastery, there was fire… passion. Every since he put that ring on your finger, however, that fire has been dying. Now it's not there anymore. Today, on the day when you should be most passionate about the future you seem more like you're going to be executed instead." Harry leaned in and gave his friend a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"Go to him." The words were almost a whisper. Daphne barely heard them herself and she was no more than two feet away. "He ignites that passion in you. Go to him."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I… I can't! He won't have me!"

Harry got suddenly serious. "He ignites that passion in you. It took me ages to figure it out, to figure out what else changed. He changed. You need a challenge; you need somebody who is on your level, who can keep up with you. Somebody who will re-ignite that fire in your eyes."

Harry continued. "Almost our entire time at Hogwarts it was he. Ron became a substitute. But your fights with him had no substance. It was all about Ron being stubborn and you fighting to make him better so that you would be satisfied. You can't be with somebody who refuses to let the past die."

Hermione started to protest. "But…"

"Go." Harry's eyes flashed dangerously, and Hermione and Daphne felt the command in his voice. Hermione looked up at Daphne, who had discretely gathered her robe and a cloak.

Hermione's voice was barely a whisper. "But if he won't have me…"

Harry's eyes softened when he saw his friend so vulnerable. "If he won't have you, marrying Ron is not the answer." Harry saw the protest form on Hermione's lips and held up his hand. "Marrying Ron is a band-aid for a hurt, a wound and a desire all at once. I hate to say this of somebody I once considered a brother, but you're better than that. You are better off not married at all than married to somebody who will only use you. Now go."

Hermione quivered. "You know who it is." Again, not a question, but a statement between two close friends.

"Yes, and I'm here, aren't I?"

Hermione sighed, looking again at the dress that hung in the corner of the dressing room. The dress that Daphne should be helping her into, buttoning the buttons up her back, and affixing the veil around her curls. She thought about the musicians that had been hired out, ready to strike up chords at her entrance. She thought about Ginny, splendid in a gold formal robe, and the guests who at this moment would be filing into the tiny church. She looked up at Daphne, who held her robe and her cloak in each hand.

"Don't worry. We will take care of everything here. Harry here might have to dispatch some of his friends to protect you, but it will all be better in the end." Daphne said. She thought quickly, and picked up a slip of spare parchment from the table nearby. She scribbled a quick note, took out her wand and mumbled a charm.

"The first one is where I think he might be on a day like today. The second address is to my parent's summer home in France. It's only open by floo, and only invited guests of the Greengrass family can enter it's wards. Keep that paper with you. It will let you breach the floo wards on the property. " Daphne cast her patronus charm, and the raven took off in flight. "I just sent a message to my sister Astoria to have her pack up our flat. I've seen the rages that Ron can get into, better than either of you two have. Being an outsider, and a friend of Lavender Brown's kept me tied into the gossip circle at Hogwarts."

Hermione nodded, and put on her robe, covering up the corset she was planning to wear under her dress, and scooped up the skirt that lay discarded on the floor. She put that on, wiggling into it as only a girl used to putting on clothes beneath her robe could. She took the cloak, read the address, and disappeared with a crack.

Harry slumped back into the chair after Hermione had left. Daphne walked up behind him and wrapped tentative arms around his neck. She leaned down and kissed his neck. With reflexes honed first by Quiddich, and refined by his Auror training, Harry swiftly pulled Daphne around onto his lap and kissed her full-on.

After a moment of the tender kiss, Daphne leaned her head against Harry's shoulder, settling into his arms. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then asked the question that burned in her mind.

"Will he accept her? Will they?"

Harry sighed. "I hope so. My ears can't deceive me too badly. It's her name that my roommate whispers when he thinks nobody is around. It was her scent that he smelled when we brewed that love potion back in Seventh year. It was her he was trying to protect that night long ago, and it was her friendship with me that caused him to be so angry and jealous with me all the time."

Daphne sighed. "He's stubborn."

Harry chuckled. "So is she."

Hermione apparated into a seedy bar, where a lone wizard lay slumped over the bar, the barkeep shooting him glances that hinged on abject pity.

"Another one?" The barkeep walked over to the wizard, who merely waved his hand and thrust a glass from between his arms.

"It's not so bad, is it?" the barkeep asked.

"I lost. I fought, almost died, and I still lost. Right about now the band will be playing and the woman I can't keep my mind off of will be walking down the aisle towards her future, and I never even got a chance to answer the 'what if'."

Hermione stepped out of the shadow just then, and mustered all her Gryffindor courage to speak. "You should not go about believing everything you hear."

The man whirled around and stared as if looking at a ghost. "You're not here."

Hermione chuckled, an empty laugh. "I am most certainly here. My question is, am I making the right decision?"

The man rose from the bar and quickly closed the distance between them. He whispered. "I thought I had lost you."

Hermione looked up into the molten eyes. "You never had me."

The man smirked. "Exactly." He twirled quickly, his robes swirling in a manner that reminded Hermione oddly of a former professor of hers. He took out a pouch and paid the barkeep. He then walked over and took her hand.

"This place is not fit for a woman of your beauty." The man's molten eyes burned into Hermione's own. "I know a nice café' in the south of France. Do you trust me?"

"I think so."

"I have to change that. Are you up for the challenge?"

Hermione smiled her first genuine smile in months. "I most certainly am, Malfoy."

Draco laughed. "Draco. You can't trust me at all if you won't call me by my first name."

Draco. "Draco" Hermione tested on her lips. It flowed rather easily off of her tongue.

"Yes, and you are Hermione. Now that we have that settled, how about an early lunch?"

Hermione nodded, and the pair vanished.

Ok, so that's one scene. If I get good reviews, I might post the other scenes I have planned out. R&R!