"Tonight will change our lives
It's so good to be by your side
But we'll cry
We won't give up the fight
We'll scream loud at the top of our lungs
And they'll think it's just cause we're young
And we'll feel so alive"

"The Great Escape"-Boys Like Girls

Chapter Ten: Escape

When Hermione had said that she wouldn't give up until the day Gwen said I do, she had hoped that the day would not be approaching so rapidly. They were scheduled to take their NEWTs tomorrow and soon the summer would start. It wouldn't be long before August fourteenth, and Gwen turned nineteen. She would then have to marry Minos and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

Draco quietly brewed his practice Felix Felices. So far he was the only one who had managed to brew it properly, and it was making Hermione even more irritable. Not only did she not find a way out of the Vow, but she couldn't brew a potion that Malfoy could.

"Hermione, calm down, you'll brew it fine. I think you're just upset Draco did it first," Gwen said to her.

"Of course I am!" Hermione screeched back and Ginny had to fight the urge to laugh at her. Ginny thought it was a good thing for her to not be the best at everything.

"Maybe Malfoy can help you practice. Give you some pointers," Ginny teased Hermione.

"Shove it Ginny," Hermione muttered unhappily. The other three laughed at her and were jovial despite the little time they had left until Gwen's nineteenth birthday. Draco had been trying to make every day count because he wasn't sure he was going to get the rest of his life with her.

They studied in Draco and Gwen's common room for another few hours before heading to the Great Hall for dinner. Hermione kept telling them about proper eating and sleeping habits before examinations. Ginny laughed when she heard Draco mutter something about insufferable know-it-alls. Draco and Gwen sat with the other two at the Gryffindor table this evening.

Gwen wasn't sure if she really could eat. She wasn't nervous about NEWTs, she would pass those well enough, but she was tense.

"Draco, I don't think I can eat right now," she told him and he frowned. She had been losing her appetite in the last few weeks. He was certain he knew the reason for it.

"Alright, love, but if you get hungry later we will summon the elves," he said to her. He didn't want to force her to eat because it wouldn't be very helpful.

After dinner, Hermione suggested they do something not related to their examinations. She continued to talk about how her research of proper examination readiness said to take study breaks to keep your mind active. The rest of them tuned her out and just did what she did. They went outside for a quick walk around the lake. Being of-age, they were allowed to do more than the younger students.

When they reached the side of the lake furthest from the castle, the four of them plopped onto the ground and stared up at the sky.

"Did you ever think you would be sitting on the other side of the grounds looking up at the stars with two Slytherins?" Gwen asked Hermione and Ginny.

"If Draco Malfoy weren't one of them, I'd say yes, but as it were. I never would have believed someone if they predicted this was going to happen," Ginny answered.

Draco nodded his head in agreement. Sometimes the whole situation felt surreal to him, too. Gwen placed her head in his lap as he sat with his back up against a tree. He smiled down at her. She had gone home with him for Easter holidays. At first they were tense because Lucius had been unhappy to see Alcott Pryce's daughter in his home, but Narcissa had swiftly told him to shove it. Draco had never been so surprised at his mother in his life.

"Examinations will begin at eight-thirty. You must follow the timetables that your Heads of House will hand out to you," McGonagall announced at breakfast the following morning. Gwen waited in silence as Minos walked down the Slytherin table handing out the schedules. As soon as she got hers, she sighed. She would meet with Minos for Potions last. She really hoped that he would stick to the exam during that time.

Draco peered over her shoulder. His Potions exam was in the middle of the day, and hers had been scheduled for the end. He had a feeling that meant she would not be attending dinner when they were finished.

"I have Potions first thing and I still haven't brewed Felix Felices perfectly!" Hermione complained as she met them at their table. Draco, Gwen, and Ginny rolled their eyes simultaneously.

They quietly ate breakfast. Draco noticed that Gwen ate half a piece of toast. She was not eating nearly as well as she had been.

"Well it is eight-fifteen, they will be clearing everything for the examinations," Hermione said as she started to gather her things. She looked back down at her timetable and sighed at Potions again.

"Hermione, you'll be fine," Gwen said to her before walking to her own first NEWT. Draco followed her out of the Great Hall. They walked in silence to the Charms classroom because they both had their NEWT in it first thing.

XXXXX

Gwen was walking to Potions, the last NEWT of the day. She had felt fairly good about all of her other examinations. She knew she would be able to brew the Felix Felices; she was the second person to manage a proper brewing of it yesterday during their study session. It was actually very funny to watch how irritable Hermione had become because of it. Gwen did not find the situation as funny now. She had to go into the Potions classroom and watch as Minos stared at her while the proctors watched over the exam. He would probably ask her to stay once the exam was finished. She didn't want to stay. She wanted to go back to her dormitory and sleep until graduation.

When her Felix Felices was finished and the proctor collected it. Gwen started to pack up her examination materials.

"Miss Malkin-Pryce," Minos addressed her formally, "Follow me to my office." Gwen did as she was told and followed him to his office.

"Dinner will be at seven tonight," he told her and then nodded his head to dismiss her. She glared before making her way to the door.

Hermione squealed as she read the results of her NEWTS a week later.

"I got all nine Outstandings!" She yelled to the whole Great Hall. Draco rolled his eyes while Ginny and Gwen snickered.

"Like she really was concerned that she would get anything else?" Gwen whispered to Ginny.

"That's just how Hermione is," Ginny whispered back. "How did you do?"

"Seven Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations," Gwen told her.

"What was the Exceeds Expectations in?" Ginny asked.

"Astronomy, I slacked off on it a little this term," Gwen admitted.

"That's okay; I got an Exceeds Expectations in Herbology and an Acceptable in Divination. Clearly, I have just enough inner eye to get me an acceptable grade," Ginny explained to her. Gwen laughed with her.

Gwen looked over to see that Draco was sporting a trademark smirk.

"Alright Draco, let's have it," she said to him.

"Eight Outstandings," he boasted. Gwen shook her head. Hermione looked at him in disbelief.

"What?!" She asked outraged. "You don't study nearly as often as I do!"

"I study just what I need to study. I try not to be an insufferable know-it-all all the time," Draco drawled, Gwen and Ginny giggled. Everyone knew that Hermione and Draco were not actually fighting; it was more just how they communicated with each other.

"We actually finished school," Hermione suddenly said in a daze. Gwen looked at her funnily.

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked for clarification.

"Well, all along I wondered if any of us would make it through school because well with all the dark things that happened in the past. It is unsettling now to know that we made it, and I'm still alive."

Hermione's confession had made each one of them go into their own quiet thoughts. It really was amazing that the four of them were sitting at the same table, but she was right, they were alive. This time tomorrow they would be given their magical degree and sent out into the world to do important things. Well, at least Hermione, Draco, and Ginny would. Gwen had to suffer the fate of an impending marriage to the world's biggest dolt. She really hated her father. If he never left Azkaban it wouldn't be soon enough for her, because she was certain she could hex him into the next millennia for his stupid Vow.

"What are we doing this last night at Hogwarts?" Ginny finally broke the silence.

"Joining one of the House parties that are bound to be happening in the common rooms?" Gwen suggested. Hermione rolled her eyes. The last common room party she was in she had to watch Ron snog Lavender Brown, not her favorite memory.

"Hey, we did what you wanted all before NEWTs, with your study schedule. Now you have to go to a party with us," Ginny said to Hermione. Hermione started to shake her head, but Gwen interrupted.

"Please? It may be the last time I get to spend time with all of you," she pleaded. Hermione thought that wasn't fair, but she found herself agreeing anyway.

"I think it should be Gryffindor. We're a little more accepted there than we are in our House's common room," Draco pointed out and the other three agreed with him. It would take Slytherin more time to adjust to the changes the world was making.

In Gryffindor tower, no one was bothered to see Draco Malfoy or Gwendolyn Malkin-Pryce at their party. The Gryffindors had become so used to seeing them with Hermione or Ginny that they just assumed they would show up at the party.

The four of them went around the room and chatted with everyone present. It turned out that Draco and Gwen weren't the only non-Gryffindors there. Luna Lovegood, Roger Davies, and many others were squished into Gryffindor tower as well.

"Every House is represented," Hermione whispered to Gwen. Gwen nodded, and realized that for the first time in maybe the entire school's history, members of all four Houses were socializing together.

"The world really is changing," Ginny said, "And not in a bad way. Well except that I'm friends with Malfoy." They laughed at the joke.

"I'm just glad I get to spend my last night as a student and not as Minos's snog slave," Gwen informed them. Draco nodded as he snaked an arm around her waist. He was just as glad. He kept putting off thoughts of what would happen when she did marry the slimy git. He was not looking forward to it. They had spent so many nights together doing a multitude of things. Sometimes they went out and sat by the lake. They occasionally read together by the fireplace.

"Let's dance!" Ginny interrupted Draco's thoughts. She grabbed Hermione and Gwen and ran off to the center of the common room. Most of the other students were there and they were flailing about to the Weird Sisters and other magical bands. Draco laughed as he watched them make fools of themselves.

"Malfoy?" Someone asked from beside him. He looked over to see Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. His face must have faltered and showed his confusion because Potter immediately answered his unasked question.

"McGonagall said we could stay in here tonight to be here for the ceremony tomorrow. We get to ride the train back with the girls," he explained, but added, "And, what in Merlin's beard are you doing in the Gryffindor common room?"

"Why don't you ask your girlfriends," Draco suggested and pointed to where the three girls were jumping in the middle of the room. Harry nodded his head in understanding.

"Oi, we leave Hogwarts, and it suddenly turns mental," Ron said in observation of members from each House being in the common room.

"No, I think it just got better," Harry corrected him. He had waited seven years to see an end to the blood feud that had existed in the wizarding world. He smiled and looked around as two former Death Eaters enjoyed food, drink, and celebrations with half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and blood traitors. It was humbling to know that he had caused the change.

"Having a moment of hero worship for yourself, Potter?" Draco drawled out of habit of annoying him.

"Something like that, ferret," Harry retorted, and Draco let out a genuine laugh.

"Mental, this whole place, and now Harry is getting that way, too," Ron muttered as Harry joined Draco in laughing.

"Eeeeek!" Ginny squealed as she came running to greet Ron and Harry.

"What are you two doing here?" Hermione asked more calmly than Ginny greeted the two boys.

"McGonagall said we could sit for the graduation," Harry responded.

Ron added, "And we didn't have to come back and do a whole year of school to do it." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You are in school. The Auror Academy is school. You dolt," she insulted him. He laughed at her obvious distaste for being allowed to be at graduation.

Hours into the party, Draco and Gwen were dancing slowly in the middle of the common room. Gwen kept blushing because Draco was staring at her like she was the prettiest thing in the room. According to Draco, she was. Gwen looked around the room and noticed that Hermione was in a corner with Ron, and Ginny was snogging Harry on the opposite side of the room. There were very few people left. Most had gone up to the dormitories or to their own Houses.

Draco and Gwen were thinking about leaving as well. It was after one in the morning, and graduation was at eleven the next morning. Gwen broke away from Draco, and went to tell her friends goodbye. Draco gave a wave and nod to them from the portrait hole. Gwen rejoined him and they made their way to the dungeons. Before long, they were entering their own common room. They went into Draco's room to sleep. This was how they had spent every night together. Gwen would fall asleep wrapped in Draco's arms. Draco was truly in love with her and he wasn't sure what he was going to do when she married Minos. He knew that whatever it was it would most likely be self-destructive. Draco did not know how to deal well with his feelings. Evidence of that was in his sixth year when he would spend hours crying in Moaning Myrtle's loo.

Once the ceremony was over, Narcissa gave Draco a hug and told him she was proud he made it through the last year.

"Mother," Draco drawled. He was unaccustomed to open gestures of emotion from either of his parents. Narcissa had been trying hard to change that. Draco had a feeling that she had always wanted to be that way with him, but his father wouldn't allow it. Draco looked over to where he left Gwen and noticed that a woman was with her. A woman he had never seen.

Gwen greeted her mother coldly. She had never responded to her owl, and did not contact her for Christmas or Easter.

"Mother," Gwen said icily.

"Gwendolyn, do not take that tone with me," her mother responded. Gwen wasn't surprised. Daralis Malkin-Pryce would never choose emotion over propriety.

"Mother, I will take whatever tone I want with you. You haven't responded to my letter and I haven't heard from you since September first!" She whispered angrily.

Gwen walked away from her mother, and could hear her shouting, "Gwendolyn Danielle Malkin-Pryce!"

Gwen needed to get away from here. Draco watched as she started to walk away from her mother.

"I have to go," Draco said to Narcissa and she nodded.