Disclaimer: I do not own HP. :-)

Twenty-four year old Hermione Granger never believed that she would live to see the world change, or rather believe that she had been so involved in making this change happen. She never knew she would see the day when Voldemort finally fell after attempting to kill her chosen one of a best friend. She never knew she would ever drop out of school to search for Horcruxes with her best comrades Ron and Harry when this search was non-academic in nature and knowing her, she lived and breathed academics. She never knew that she would ever be sneaking around with them when she herself was downright righteous, telling them off constantly in their first year to stop sneaking around.

"I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another idea to get us killed, or worse; expelled."

She laughed, remembering how young and naïve she was, always believing that the world would always still be filled with an idealistic sort and seven years later, her viewpoint changed.

She shuffled papers three times before she placed them neatly on top of the stack with the label "FINISHED" and sighed happily, knowing she was almost finished with her daily dose of hard work. She decided to scour her three drawers, looking for things she might have forgotten were in there. She sifted through letters, yellowed award papers, and a photograph of her in the Yule Ball with both of her arms on Harry's and Ron's shoulders. She smiled inwardly, remembering how dolled up she was, a look she never knew she would pull off so well. She remembered the night when she caught the attention of the entire male population while she sauntered down the stairs and she caught the jealous eyes of the female population.

She then found a rose behind the photo and she remembered that Ron had given it to her during the Ball.

"Ah, Hermi-ninny," Viktor Krum grunted as he took hold of her hand and she giggled. "You look beateevul tonight."

"Oh, Vicky," Hermione smiled as she sipped her Butterbeer. Viktor Krum grinned smugly. "How charming of you."

"Thanks, Hermy," Viktor replied. "I may be 'charming' but I haf practiced much more magic than regyoolar people."

"Actually, Vicky, 'charming' means—" Hermione began but was cut off by a stomping, infuriated Ron.

"Viktor." Ron fumed, his left fist clenched and his right arm behind his back.

"Ah, Veesly," Viktor clapped, standing up. "Came here vor anofer autograph?"

"On the contrary, Krum," Ron growled, getting impatient. "I would like to speak to Hermione."

"Ron…" Hermione interrupted.

"I cannot do that, Veesly," Viktor replied simply, sitting back down and looking at a red-faced Ron. "She iz my date tonight."

"I am aware of that," Ron gritted. "But that does not mean you own her, Krum. She's my best friend."

"Ronald, please don't start—" Hermione growled, slamming her Butterbeer bottle on the table and then stood up.

"Ah," Viktor put his hands up. "I deed not see it that vay. Okay, Veesly. You can take 'er vor a minut."

"Gladly." Ron replied curtly, his eyes signaling Hermione to move.

Hermione rolled her eyes and stomp-followed him out of the Great Hall, her lavender dress fluttering.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" Hermione huffed, stomping her heels. "Are you bonkers? What is so important that you had to drag me out of the Ball?"

"Do you like Viktor?"

"What?" Hermione sputtered.

"Do you like Viktor?" Ron repeated.

"I—No… It's none of your business!" Hermione reddened.

"Oh," Ron looked down, sheepish. "I'm sorry…"

"You better be," Hermione spat. "Now, what is it that you wanted to say to me?"

"I…" Ron murmured, still looking down and his right hand still behind his back. "Erm…"

Hermione was tapping her right foot impatiently, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

"What?" Hermione snapped.

"I…" Ron murmured again, stomping his foot in frustration due to his loss of words.

"Am I going to stand here the whole night listening to you repeat the pronoun I? Because I need to be going somewhere."

"Wait, 'Mione…"

Hermione turned on her heel and was about to go when…

"WAIT!" Ron repeated loudly.

"Pardon?" Hermione turned around and glared at Ron.

"I meant, wait…" Ron sighed, knowing he screwed this conversation up. "I have something…"

"Well, we can't keep Viktor waiting!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I…" Ron said again. "Here."

Hermione was stunned to see a long-stemmed red rose in his right hand and she was left speechless.

"Is this it?"

"Well…"

"Well, what? I haven't got all night!"

"What I wanted to say was…"

"What?"

"I l…"

"Hurry up!"

"I like…"

"Go on."

"I'd like you to get an autograph from Viktor Krum!"

"You what?"

"I'd like an autograph from Viktor Krum."

"Why didn't you just ask him when you were there?"

"Well, I didn't want to look crazy in front of him! I was fuming!" Ron replied, reddening even more.

"Oh, all right," Hermione rolled her eyes. "Is that it?"

Ron knew that it was opposite of what he meant but said otherwise.

"Yes."

She remembered she handed a napkin with Viktor's signature on it to Ron that same night with a little note added on the bottom that said:

I like you too.

Ron grimaced, thinking that it was from Viktor but sighed in relief when it was actually from Hermione. They were together until seventh year and it felt like a match made in heaven until she realized that they weren't perfect for each other at all. Ron couldn't really keep up with her intelligence and her prowess in a lot of aspects and she felt that a woman on top must be very shameful for Ron. And in a way, Ron wanted to focus more on rebuilding his life when the Burrow was burned to bits during the War and to share grieving moments with the family after Fred had died. They talked all their issues over and they split amicably, but still remained the best of friends.

"Are you really going to miss me that much?" a voice interrupted her thoughts.

Hermione jumped and looked to find that Ron was smirking widely.

"Because we could have gotten together again, you know…"

Hermione whacked his head with a rolled-up contract folder.

"Ow!" Ron winced, rubbing his head gingerly. "What was that for?"

"For being an outright, smug arse."

"Well, you didn't have to hit me so hard!"

"You deserved it!"

"You could've hit me some other way!"

"Now you're putting malicious meaning into what you're saying!" Hermione whacked him on the head again.

"Ow! Stop it!" Ron rubbed his head again. "If you're calling me an arse, why aren't you hitting me in the bum?"

"Stop talking like that!"

"I'm meaning it the way it is!"

"Okay, you two," a calm voice interrupted their little squabble. "Calm down."

"Harry!" they squealed and the trio hugged.

"It's funny how we hug like we haven't seen each other in months or years." Harry laughed.

"Well, I am going to miss you." Hermione admitted sadly, remembering she will be departing in eleven weeks time.

"When does your custody thing start?"

"Next week," Hermione replied. "I didn't want to trudge in on Malfoy's house considering how I dealt with him the previous week."

"What did you do?"

Hermione then related the story to her two peers and they frowned.

"Well, he deserved it!" Ron replied.

"On the contrary." Harry chimed.

"What?" Ron sputtered. "Are you trying to defend him? After what he called Hermione?"

"He did send you an approval from Scrimgeour," Harry said. "He did, didn't he?"

Hermione nodded sheepishly.

"I think he sent that letter to you as some sort of apology," Harry continued. "Have you apologized to him?"

"He deserved those words, Harry!" Ron interjected, reeling from the anger he felt when he watched his best friend being silenced to tears by the verbal torment she received from Malfoy during the trial.

"We all say things like those sometimes," Harry glanced at Ron. "Remember when you told me that I couldn't feel what family was like because my parents were dead?"

Ron hung his head in shame.

"Oh, right, yeah," Ron put his hands in his pockets. "Sorry about that, mate."

"And I forgave you, right?" Harry questioned. "We're still best friends."

He then turned to Hermione.

"You must do the same to Malfoy," Harry said. "You're leaving in eleven weeks and you don't want to start anew with grudges still hanging in there."

Hermione clutched the crumpled joint custody letter in her jeans pocket.

"You don't have to like him," Harry continued. "But just be civil with each other. I think Scorpius wants you to do the same."

Hermione was stunned to hear such words coming from Harry's mouth and silently applauded his best friend's words of wisdom. Who knew that a boy whose parents were taken away and whose loved ones he had slowly died in front of his eyes could carry such a huge heart of forgiveness? He grew up and moved on.

She knew she would forgive him eventually but that slight push from Harry gave her even more encouragement to do so as soon as possible.

She inhaled slowly, hoping that Draco would be ready to accept her apology and not receive it in the same way she had received his.