Okay, I know you're mad at me. But I promise that the other ending will be a happy one.

Last Time on BIWEB:

"Are you sure, Miss Granger?" asked McGonagall. Hermione nodded. McGonagall sighed. "Very well. It is your decision to make. If you change your mind...."

"I'm not going to," she said.

Epilogue: Hermione's Decision Repeated

A tear rolled down Hermione's cheek as she closed her Hogwarts diary.

"You've got to stop doing this to yourself," she said. "He doesn't remember you."

Only because you didn't want him to.

"I wasn't going to sacrifice my friendship."

Oh, yes. Look at how that turned out.

Hermione sighed. When she had gotten engaged, Ron and Harry had instantly hated William. They didn't talk much any more, except for the few times they ran into each other in Diagon Alley. Another tear rolled down her cheek.

It had been two years to the day that she had graduated from Hogwarts. She now held a decent position at the Daily Prophet as a dependable reporter. Her husband William was a muggle, someone her parents had fixed her up with. Hermione looked at the clock sitting on her desk. Seven fifteen.

"Will, I'm going for a walk. I'll be back...sometime." She sighed and walked out of her office. Her husband was sitting on the couch, completely zoned out in front of the TV. "On second thought, I'm just going to take your car and go have an affair with that Joe guy from your office. Don't wait up." She waited for some kind of response.

"That sounds nice honey. Be sure to pick me up some peanut butter on your way back."

Hermione blinked back the tears welling up in her eyes. She walked out the front door and down the street to a playground, where the neighborhood mothers were just getting their children to come home. Hermione sat down in one of the swings. She felt the tears pour down her cheeks, and put her face in her hands.

A few minutes later, Hermione heard the unmistakable crack of someone apparating, and sensed someone standing in front of her. Sure it was her boss, Delores, telling her to get to work on the article she needed in the morning, she said, "You shouldn't do that. This is a muggle neighborhood."

"Imagine that," came a man's voice. "Muggle-born Granger living with muggles. I never would have guessed," he said sarcastically. Hermione looked up, confused.

Standing not four feet away was Severus. Hermione gasped. "W-what are you doing here?"

Severus smiled. "You can't tell me that you don't remember either." Hermione put a hand to her mouth.

"You...remember?" she asked. Severus nodded. Hermione smiled, and rushed to wrap her arms around him. He held her close as she buried her face in his chest, clinging to him for her life. "Severus..." she started, but trailed off. What was she supposed to say? That she was sorry? Blame it on Ron and Harry?

"Shh, Hermione. Minerva explained when I told her. I understand." he tilted her head up so she was looking him in the eyes. "I love you." Hermione noticed that the tears were flowing again.

She let her arms fall to her sides and stepped back away from him. "I'm sorry, Severus."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Hermione." He took a step towards her and tried to wrap his arms around her again. She stepped back again.

"Yes, I do." She wiped her eyes. "Severus, I'm married."

There was a long beat of silence. "What?" asked Severus.

"Severus, I'm married. I'll admit, he's not perfect, but-"

"Oh, yes, dear William," said Snape. "Potter and Weasley told me about him. They said he's cheated on you...how many times?"

"Three times," said Hermione, looking at the ground. "And a few one-night stands. In a year and a half." She sniffed, and wiped her eyes. She looked up at him. "But I can't leave him, Severus. I can't. I don't make that much as a reporter, and-"

"Hermione, I love you. I can support you. You don't deserve to be treated like that. Hermione, please."

"Please what? Leave my husband, and be whisked off on some loveboat? Severus, I have already lost my best friends, for whom I turned down the love of my life. My parents love Will. If I leave him, I risk losing them too." She put her head in her hands. "I'm sorry."

Severus looked at her stonily. "Hermione, I'm not going to let you be treated this way. Please, you deserve so, so much better than this. You deserve better than him."

Hermione looked into his eyes, and for a second, thought she saw a glimpse of the boy she fell in love with. "Severus, we've changed. I care about my family more than anything. And, I've realized that, even though you can never forget your first love, doesn't mean that you'll love them forever."

"Hermione, don't say it."

"Severus, I'll never forget you, but I stopped loving you a long time ago." She shook her head. "I wasted too many hours crying over lost love. I don't want it back." She sighed, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

She entered her house, glad that Will worked nights, and was gone. She went back into her office and started back to working on the article for tomorrow's paper.
Hermione's husband didn't come home the next morning. He was in a wreck the night before on his way to work. He was pronounced dead when the paramedics arrived.

Hermione, without the distraction of her husband's flavor-of-the-week tendencies, wrote better than ever, and got a promotion so she could keep her house. She owled Harry, who was the DADA teacher at Hogwarts, and he and Ron and Hermione met at the Three Broomsticks. Hermione asked their forgiveness, which they were happy to give.

After around two months, Hermione moved to Hogsmeade so that she could visit Harry and be around wizards.

And here's the real shocker: Three months later, she and Severus started dating again. When Harry and Ron asked why, she said, "I know that the boy I first fell in love with is gone, but that's no reason I can't love the man that he is now."

And so ends the story of a love found, lost, and found again.
Okay, I'll have the first chapter of the alternate ending up soon, I promise.