Right after graduation from Hogwarts I was sitting in a muggle bookstore somewhere and I came across a quote by Henry David Thoreau, he said, "Live the life you've dreamed." For the first time in my life I stopped and thought about what it was that I wanted from life. I knew what my parents wanted from me, I knew what was expected of me by my peers, but I did not know what I wanted.

Somehow I ended up in a bar three years later drinking a beer and going crazy trying to figure out how to tell the woman I loved that I wanted to be with her. Three years can change a person. That day in the bookstore sure changed me. I froze my bank accounts and got an actual job doing something that I never would have dreamed of doing. I made new friends. Those new friends were my enemies in school but they forgave me and I learned forgiveness myself. I learned all those values and morals that I missed out on in my childhood. I learned it was okay to have emotions too. The one emotion that was hardest for me to accept was love. I grew up not being loved and never thought I would love, but then she came back into my life.

It took a year for her to stop giving me the cold shoulder whenever I walked into the room. It took another year for her to say that we were friends and not just aquaintences. This last year we've spent almost every spare moment together. I didn't even realize that I loved her until a few days ago, we were having dinner in her apartment celebrating a new promotion for her. The dinner had all the parts of a romantic dinner, the candles, the wine, the music. She had gotten dressed up too. Instead of the boring business suits or baggy jeans and t-shirts she usually wore she was wearing a dress that hugged her curves, accentuated her shoulders and back and made her legs look a mile long. Her hair was pulled up into a twist with a few strands framing her face. She took my breath away when she stepped into the candlelight. She twirled slowly and laughed as she said "I clean up good huh?"I could only respond by saying that she looked beautiful.

Instead of going home right away that night I wandered the streets thinking. I didn't sleep for days. And then I did something that I never thought I would do, I went to someone for advice.

"Wow Malfoy, you look like shit."

"I think I'm in love with Granger."

"So much for small talk and friendly banter. Way to lay the big stuff on me."

"I try. What am I going to do?"

"Um...tell her."

That unhelpful advice led me to the bar. Hoping that maybe at the bottom of one the glasses would be what I needed to know. I got up and went to the bar to order another drink when I saw her sitting in a corner crying with Potter's wife trying to comfort her. Using all the sneaking skills I learned in Hogwarts to get back to my common room without getting caught I made my way closer to them so I could over hear and hoped that the big trucker sitting near them wouldn't move and allow them to see where I was hiding.

"What am I going to do Ginny? I love him and he could never love me. I'm just a friend to him."

"He loves you! I can see it! Harry can see it!"

"If he loves me why hasn't he said anything."

I decided right then and there that if i was to live the life I dreamed I needed to take action. So I stood up from my crouch and sat down at their table. Hermione instantly stopped crying and the two women were looking at me with utter awe.

"Maybe I haven't told you that I love you yet is because I was waiting for the right time to. Maybe I wanted the moment to be perfect so that when you thought about that second in time fifty years from now you would know that my feelings were real. Maybe I want to take you in my arms and never let you go and the only thing I say to you is barely above a whisper but all I would say is 'I love you' and you would grow more in love with me every time I said it. Maybe I want to ask you to be my wife."

The only response I got was a love that will last forever.