January 21, 2009
Disclaimer: See chapter one. Not mine, no money.
Author's Note: Here is chapter the last. Review if you like it! Thanks so, so, so much to Lyndsie Fenele for beta-ing! I will post the epilogue in a few days.

Chapter Eleven: At Last

Sound and sight were twisted, confused entities that Hermione could not understand when she next became conscious. There was pain. Oh yes, there was pain, which added to her disorientation and fear.

Lucius Malfoy was nearby. She had tried to escape but she had not been able to command her magic to transform herself into the bird form that would enable her to flee. She had blacked out then, unable to take the pain or the fear of her unknown fate, leaving Draco to fight Lucius alone. Her head throbbed, incapable of making sense of the pain. Her sight blurred and the room around her spun. Not that she could see anything anyway; a blindingly white backdrop surrounded her, but she could feel the dizziness of the spinning room in her head and in her stomach. It was there, mixed with the pain that originated in her abdomen and grew until she was numb with it, until her body was on fire.

Only now did she recognize sound jumbled with the pain and her limited sight. Voices that appeared to come from far away invaded her mind, confusing her more, increasing the pounding in her head.

"I don't see anything wrong with…"

"…traces of magic…"

"…must be something there!"

None of it made sense to her. Without an image to connect the words to, she was at a loss as to what they meant.

And then she heard something that broke through the confusion, the only thing she recognized in the amalgamated mass of senses.

"Dumbledore is coming."

"Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore! Certainly he could fix her broken eyes and make the unbearable pain go away? Certainly he could do it?

"Miss Granger?" Suddenly her blurred and shaky vision was overflowing with a snowy white beard and blue eyes filled with concern behind half-moon spectacles. Dumbledore.

"Make it go away!" she cried, but she never heard the words leave her mouth so she didn't know if she actually said them.

"I tried to tell them, but I couldn't! It wouldn't come out!" She knew that voice. She would recognize it anywhere. Her body would respond to it in sleep, in unconsciousness, and in death. It was responding now, trying to reach for the voice to comfort her as nothing else could.

"I know, Mr. Malfoy. Don't worry. I'll take care of this."

Hermione didn't know what happened then but the sounds around her changed. There were gasps followed by silence and then the urgent sounds of people rushing to fulfill tasks. She whimpered and tried to reach for Draco but she didn't know where he was and the pain made it impossible for her to move.

Her senses became clearer as the pain got sharper. The voices became more distinct, her sight settled and unclouded. Her eyes roamed in their sockets looking for the flash of blond hair that would be her only solace. The pain wouldn't even matter as long as she had Draco with her.

"I'm sorry, but you will have to leave."

"Leave? I can't leave! This is my baby! My Her—"

A hand snatched hers from wherever it was laying. She could feel the hot fingers enclosed around her cold ones.

"I'm sorry. Professor?"

"Mr. Malfoy. There is nothing we can do here."

"I won't go!"

"Think of Miss Granger. It will only cause her pain for you to see her like this."

Hermione whimpered. No, no, no, no. It would cause her pain for him to leave her! What did she care how she looked as long as she knew he was there?

"Hermione?"

"No!" she moaned and repeated it in a pitiful, crying voice. "No, no, no!"

"Mr. Malfoy, you are in the way here. We can't help her if you are a distraction. Please, for the baby's sake and for hers…"A Healer was speaking. Hermione wanted to slap her.

"Hermione." And then his glorious face was the only thing that she could see. Tears threatened to obscure her vision but she fought them back furiously, refusing to be blind to the one person she wanted to see. His face was screwed up in pain that must have equaled hers just to see his expression, and there was concern that she knew stemmed from his love. Of course he loved her. There was no doubt about it now. No matter what had happened to them in the past, it was evident that the only right thing, the only correct thing in the world was that they needed to be together.

"I'll be right outside. I'm not leaving you. I won't leave you again. Alright? Do you understand?"

She nodded as the tears spilled over from the pain attacking her in every direction: the physical pain coursing through her body, the emotional pain taking Draco's place in her heart.

"Yours," she cried, unsure what she was trying to say. "All yours."

"Mine. I'm coming back for it."

She wiped her eyes and shook her head from side to side. The pain, the unbearable pain was too much for her to take. She covered her eyes with her arm, tried to wipe away the tears but felt more relief by blocking out the impersonal whiteness of the room.

She felt his lips press down on her arm and then his hand moved it off her face so he could kiss her lips. She responded slowly noting how their kiss tasted of salt and tears. If she had been more emotionally stable, she would have treasured the kiss, made it last longer. It was their first one in months and months. Hermione had never felt so whole and so broken as she did when he pulled away.

The pain came at her from all sides and engulfed her. Consciousness trickled away once again as the Healers swarmed around her in their lime green robes, effectively shunning Albus Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy from their midst.

Dumbledore escorted him away from the delivery room and down the hall to the sitting area where visitors waited. Draco was unaware of the headmaster's hand clutching his shoulder tightly, as if to prevent him from turning around and running back to Hermione's side. He wanted to do it. But dammit he wanted to do it. He wasn't aware of anything as they walked away at their brisk pace. His thoughts totally and completely revolved around Hermione and how he had failed her and their baby. Even the thought that Lucius was now in the custody of the Ministry did not soothe him, because even if his father had been half-dead by the time any help had arrived at the manor, he was still somewhere in the hospital with them being treated for being a worthless piece of scum.

Draco wanted him to die. He was not the same man he had been when Draco was growing up. He had been stern and demanding, of course, but doting in his own way. The man that Lucius had become was a danger to everyone that Draco loved, and he would gladly sacrifice his deranged father for those people.

Dumbledore pushed open a pair of swinging doors and Draco was immediately ambushed. All he could see was a flash of bright red hair before two thin arms enveloped him in a bone-crushing embrace that he did not expect coming from the youngest Weasley child.

"We should have watched her better! I asked her if she needed me to walk back with her but she snapped at me so I let her go! I should have just gone! I should have made sure she made it back to the castle safely!" Ginny Weasley cried into his shoulder, her hot tears soaking his school robes.

He detached himself from her oppressive arms stiffly and glared at her as hard as he could. "You should have! She—she wouldn't be here if—if…" But everyone sitting in the waiting room could see that he was not capable of being cold to her. He was broken and it astonished them because they had never seen him like this before.

Ginny released him and rubbed her eyes. She turned to sit in a chair between her father and her boyfriend and curled herself against Harry's side.

Standing hesitantly in front of him now was a woman with curly chestnut-colored hair and behind her, a hostile sandy-haired man in glasses. Draco vaguely recognized them from an outing to Diagon Alley the summer before his second year, but even if he hadn't, he would have seen Hermione's features in both of them and known instantly who they were.

"Draco, right?" Mrs. Granger asked. He nodded faintly, barely acknowledging that she was there until she had her arms wrapped around him. His nose was buried in her thick hair and he closed his eyes, remembering how he used to bury his face in her daughter's hair as they shared his bed every night. "You saved her! Thank you. You saved her."

These were not the words he expected her to say. He really didn't know what he thought she would say. He never imagined himself confronting Hermione's parents and he was at a loss about what he should do now.

"I didn't." The words slipped out. He never meant to say them. If the daft woman wanted to thank him for Hermione being where she was now, he bloody well should have let her. "She's here because of me."

"Exactly! Who knows what would have happened to her if you and your mother hadn't saved her."

Draco recoiled at the mention of his mother. He still didn't know what her part in all of this was. He was confused by Mrs. Granger's words. Mr. Granger's expression was more of what he had expected.

"She's hurt and… and… well, this is all because of him," he said to his wife savagely. But she ignored him and smiled at Draco, rubbing his face gently. There was pain etched in her face and he wondered if she was being kind to him because of it. Anything to combat the pain inside, he thought.

Mrs. Weasley interrupted their meeting.

"Albus?" she asked hesitantly.

Dumbledore sighed sadly and spoke for the first time since they'd left the delivery room. "She hasn't sustained any permanent injuries, but…"

"But what?" Ron prompted savagely. It was clear by the way he was glaring at Draco that he blamed the blond man completely for Hermione's condition, whatever it was.

"She's lost her magic." There was a collective gasp. Draco stared at the wizened old man as if he'd never seen him before in his life and just now realized what an oddball he really was. He had not known that Hermione had lost her magic. "Her Healers think the stress and the shock that she had endured over the past twenty-four hours caused her body to suppress her magic, and that she might regain it with some rest and no agitation."

Ron pointed a figure at Draco from his chair, his face a horrible mask of hate. "There. She's a Muggle now! Obviously not good enough for the great Draco Malfoy, so why don't you leave her alone? She'd be much better off without you!"

Draco stared at him blankly. What he was saying was ludicrous. Couldn't he see that there was no possible way that he and Hermione could be apart? The only way he could function, the only way he could breathe easily was if he was with her. He hadn't slept properly in months without her by his side.

"I can't," he said simply, a hint of desperation in his voice that most everyone could hear.

Ginny piped up then, too quickly to just be curious—she was probably trying to cut her brother off from arguing with him. "Professor Dumbledore, what about…"

He understood immediately. "They won't know about the baby until it is delivered." Draco flinched.

"Baby!" Ron and the Weasley parents shrieked. Ron shot up from his chair and stared at Draco with all the intensity of a dragon protecting its nest.

"She's…she's…"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. For the past several months, Miss Granger has been under a Fidelius Charm that I placed on her. It was her choice to do so."

"You did this to her!" Ron shouted, rounding on Draco, coming nose to nose with him. "All of this is because of you!"

Draco closed his eyes and waited for the punch, but it never came.

"Ron, sit down," Ginny said.

"You knew?"

"Harry and I both knew. Hermione didn't tell you because she knew you would behave just like this! Stop acting like she's done this just to hurt you and sit down. Can't you see he's hurting enough already?"

They all could see it, especially in his wide, grey eyes that stared at nothing and brimmed with tears that did not fall. He stood where he had been since entering the sitting area looking like the softest breath could knock him down, looking hopeless and guilty and so very alone. He was frightening this way, with his bloodstained robes and his face so pale that he looked nearly translucent. He swayed on his feet as if unable to keep himself standing, as if he only did so through the force of his will, which was quickly draining from him along with his energy.

Mrs. Weasley approached him. She put her arms around his shoulders, tucking his head against her voluptuous chest and looked at Dumbledore gravely.

"Will he be alright?"

"Fine, I should think. The Healers said he is suffering from shock, mostly. He refused to let them help him, though. Maybe if he ate something, he'd be back to rights." Dumbledore touched his shoulder again and squeezed it gently. "Mr. Malfoy, I am going to see your mother. Would you like to come along?"

His reply was quick and vehement. "I don't want to speak to her." And in a softer voice he said, "I told Hermione I would be right here."

Dumbledore nodded. "Of course, my dear boy. Molly, if you should need me, just contact the receptionist on the fourth floor."

She nodded. As Dumbledore disappeared down another corridor, Mrs. Weasley shepherded Draco to the chair next to her, keeping his face buried in her side. She rocked him from side to side as if he was one of her own children and sang a lullaby under her breath. They were all silent until Ginny's sobs broke loose and shook the quiet, and then Draco lost the last shred of his self-control and cried quietly into Mrs. Weasley's side.

He didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he heard the muttered voices around him.

"This boy is in love with her!"

"It seems that way."

"In love? You haven't seen the way he's treated her, Mrs. Granger! Like scum!"

Draco stopped himself from fidgeting. He didn't know who was speaking but he knew whom they were speaking about, and the words just sounded absurd.

"You've got it wrong, Ron." Draco recognized this voice and a sneer formed on his face involuntarily.

"Oh so you're Draco bloody Malfoy's best friend now, are you?"

"Ron! That's not necessary!"

"I'm not his best friend! You should have heard the way Hermione talked about him. They both made mistakes. It was all a big misunderstanding."

"And that makes it okay for him to treat her like scum?"

Potter sighed in exasperation. Draco wanted to too but he didn't want to alert anyone to the fact that he was awake yet.

"You pay attention to the wrong things."

"I pay attention to the wrong things?"

"Well, I think he's mad for her. He seems sincerely sorry that she's hurt." Draco felt this voice rumbling from the body he was half draped over. Mrs. Weasley, he thought.

"I know she's in love with him. You should have read the letters she wrote about him," the first person he had heard speak said. He thought now was a good time to wake up, so he squirmed restlessly in the uncomfortable chair before sitting up and opening his eyes.

They all stared at him with wide-eyed apprehension, though he had no idea what they were apprehensive about. Ginny was asleep at Potter's side, who played with her hair and gave Draco an apologetic look. Ron had his arms crossed over his chest and turned his head away. Mr. Granger looked like he wanted to copy him, while Hermione's mother and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave him sympathetic looks.

"I brought you something to eat," the Muggle woman said as she stood from her chair and handed Draco a wrapped sandwich. He didn't feel the least bit hungry, but he took it from her to keep from appearing rude and muttered his thanks. She seemed pleased as she sat back down again.

As he peeled the napkin away from the sandwich, he discovered turkey and cheese and took a small bite out of it. Peeking up at the three parents who could stand to look at him, he noted that Mrs. Granger smiled widely at him as he ate and he felt warm inside for making her so happy for no reason.

"Granger?" a Healer called from the pair of swinging doors Draco and Dumbledore had walked through who knew how long ago. He choked on the small bite of sandwich he had just taken and they all sat up straighter, Harry shaking Ginny awake.

Hermione's parents had stood up when their name was called. The Healer approached them and offered her hand.

"I'm Healer Falconbridge. Your daughter is just fine! Got herself in a bit of a sticky mess though, didn't she?" The Healer chuckled to herself, but the Grangers looked less than appreciative.

"The baby?" Mrs. Granger asked darkly.

"A boy! We'll need to keep him for observation. Goodness, yes! He's nearly four weeks early. We'll want to make sure there are no complications and all. Now, I think Mrs. Granger is ready for some visitors. One at a time, now. How about you first, deary?" The Weasleys and the Grangers looked at the Healer as if she had gone off her rocker, because Mrs. Granger was clearly standing in front of her, but they said nothing.

Draco had stood up to go see Hermione. Of course he would be the one to go, but Healer Falconbridge had grabbed Mrs. Granger's elbow and was pulling her away down the corridor hidden behind the swinging doors. He stared after them in disbelief. He knew that he had made mistakes and done Hermione wrong, he knew that she was her mother, but it still incited in him tremendous anger that he of all people had been overlooked. Not only was he a Malfoy, but he was the baby's father!

Barely a minute later, Mrs. Granger rushed back through the door with Healer Falconbridge spluttering on her heels. Her eyes landed on Draco and she grabbed his shoulder and pushed him toward the doors.

"She'll see no one but you, of course."

"This is highly inappropriate!" the Healer said, but Draco ignored her and took off down the hall. He was pointed in the direction of Hermione's recovery room and then he burst in, closing the door soundly on Healer Falconbridge's scandalized face.

"Draco?"

He turned around and suddenly found himself at a loss. They had waited for this moment—the single moment where they could be together and alone—for ages and now he found himself embarrassed and uncertain. Despite what her mum had said, maybe she didn't want to see him. Maybe she had misread her own daughter.

"Are you alright?" he found himself asking as his feet carried him towards her bed where she was laying limply.

"You're finally here?"

He waved his hand in the air as if swatting at a fly and scowled disapprovingly. "Are you alright?"

Her eyes gazed over him with the intensity of a woman staring at a sumptuous feast as she slowly starved to death, and at any other time he would have preened at such attention from anyone. Now, he felt like the leftovers, the scraps that were fed to the dog, someone wholly unworthy of such a stare from her.

But feast or scraps, she was starving wasn't she? And any of him would do, it seemed.

"Now that you are here, I am," she replied timidly.

Slowly, he sat himself down on the bed, trying not to jostle her too much for fear that he would unintentionally hurt her in some way. Taking her hands in his own to hide the trembling in his fingers, he asked her, "And… the baby?"

Her eyes jumped from their clasped hands to his face as if surprised. "They—they took him away from me. They said he was weak. You should have seen him. He's just so—so frail looking, so tiny and breakable."

Her eyes flooded with tears and Draco didn't know what to do. He couldn't get their son back this instant, not if he needed the Healers' attention. Lifting her hands to his lips and pressing light kisses to her skin, he replied solemnly, "Don't worry. We'll get him back."

"You don't know that!" she cried. His eyes widened at her urgency. "What if he… What if he…"

He could feel his expression harden like stone and his voice was flat and cold when he spoke. "He won't. Or I'll sue whichever incompetent Healer was in charge of him for every penny they own and make sure they never heal again. Not my son."

Draco couldn't name the emotion in Hermione's eyes as her head shook back and forth infinitesimally. He could tell that she either didn't believe him or thought he was being foolish. And maybe he was, but what else could he say? He didn't know if their baby was going to live, but he knew that he wanted it to. It couldn't die before he even had the chance to meet him or hold him.

Clearing his throat, he said, "Did—did you name him?"

She nodded and he nodded back absently, slightly disappointed. He shoved that emotion aside, knowing there would be more children for him to name later. His body froze when his mind caught up with the thought. Was he ready to marry Hermione right now? Did he really want a houseful of children with her?

Yes, he did, and not just because it would be the right thing to do in this case. But did she want to marry him after he behaved like an utter bastard towards her?

She squeezed his hands slightly and he looked up to see her eyeing him shrewdly.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked her as tears filled her eyes again.

"Yes, I'm fine!" she answered shrilly, but somehow he thought that she was not fine and he was possibly asking the wrong question.

In an attempt to placate her, he released her hands and reached into his robes, pulling out a familiar Vinewood wand. "Look, I have your wand!"

She took it from him carefully, still looking teary-eyed, and twirled it in her lap. Her head was bowed with her hair forming a curtain around her face so that he could not see her expression. Draco was confused and somewhat mortified. His hands itched to reach out and grab her, to pull her into his chest and never let her go. But she obviously did not want him there.

"There are so many people in the waiting room…" he said, perched on the edge of her bed as if to flee. She noticed his anxiety and tension and bit her lip as she frowned. "They're just waiting to see you."

"Let them wait!" she cried, her eyes wide and stricken. "Why haven't you touched me yet? Why haven't you kissed me?"

His heart pounded, the sound reverberating in his head. They both heard the sigh that he released even if he was unaware of doing so. Words left his mouth without asking him for permission; he had no idea what he was saying until it was said.

"I have touched you."

"Not enough! It's not nearly enough," she whispered. He was silent for several moments, watching her carefully.

"I didn't know you wanted me to."

But now he did, so he pushed through the vast gulf of uncertainty and pain and time that stood between them and instead of pulling her towards him, he used her body as leverage to pull himself against her. Her hands fluttered hesitantly on his chest and his shoulders before she resolutely draped them around his neck and tugged him as close as she could. Their lips still had not yet touched, but Draco remedied that immediately, and with all the carefulness of a giant in a goblin's house, crashed his lips to hers.

They talked, heedless of the other people waiting in the sitting area beyond Hermione's door. They talked about everything they never had the chance to say while they were separated for so many months. They refrained from speaking of the future because their future together was something that could not exist until they could reconcile with their past.

Teary-eyed, Hermione told him that she had no more magic, and he whispered that he knew. And then he kissed her forehead gently to reassure her that it didn't matter, followed by whispered reassurances that it would come back. Hermione tried to argue, just as she had tried to argue about their baby's chances of living, but Draco did not let her disagree and distracted her the best way he knew how.

"You have to thank your mother for me," she murmured as she pulled away from his embrace, intoxicated by his kisses and his words.

Draco stiffened. "My mother?"

"Mmhm. I wish we'd had a daughter to name after her. It's the least we could do."

"What about my mother?"

Hermione looked into his eyes uncertainly. She knew how much he cared for Narcissa, she had seen his devotion, but the tense way he held his body now contradicted what she knew about his feelings for her.

"Your father kidnapped her because of us. Well, and because of her too, but she was there, at your house, partly because of the baby and us. And when I told her that I was still pregnant, she accepted it almost immediately. She told me she never should have tried to push Pansy onto you."

This was news to Draco, of course, and his incredulity showed on his face.

"She was horrible to me the first time I told her, but I know now she only did so to protect herself and me, because your father stayed by her side in the hospital room night and day." Another look at Draco's face and Hermione frowned. "You didn't know?"

"No. Wait, you told my mother you were pregnant?"

Hermione blushed. "I—I wanted someone to be able to tell you someday that you had a child. She was the only person I trusted enough to tell, because I knew how much you cared for each other."

"You ridiculous, insane witch," he muttered before he leaned over her in her hospital bed and pressed his lips to her again for the thousandth time. They did no more talking for quite a while.

It was nearly half an hour later that a Healer came in holding a blue bundle, saying, "Miss Granger? He needs feeding and we'd like you to try breast-feeding him. He'll get stronger drinking his mother's milk."

"Alright," she said, blushing.

The Healer gently handed the baby over into Hermione's expectant arms. Her blush lit her entire face as she adjusted the neck of her hospital robes and muttered to Draco, "Couldn't you look away for a moment?"

Draco was mesmerized by the idea of his baby feeding from her, not in the least because he envied him, but he turned his head away until she could get settled and then his gaze fell back on mother and child.

The Healer left, promising to return in a few minutes before, smirking, Draco commented, "I could get used to this."

Hermione glared. "Draco Malfoy, I am never ever having sex with you ever again, so don't you get any thoughts in your head!"

He shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. "I'm sure you'll change your mind."

"Never," she grumbled, shifting her eyes down to the baby at her breast. Draco's eyes followed and he was once again fascinated by the tiny thing and the image that they both created.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "What's his name?"

"Samuel Amadeus Granger," she said softly, stroking the fair, downy hair that already covered his head.

"Oh, we'll have to change that," he said. Hermione looked at him as if he was mad.

"Excuse me? If you don't like it, you should have been here!"

He knew she didn't just mean in the hospital room when she had named him, because they both knew he had not been allowed in, but seeing the tears filling her eyes, he tried to explain.

"I just meant that you can't give the poor kid initials that spell out sag."

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment and then scowled. "How the hell are you planning on changing it?" Her words were scathing; obviously she didn't think he could change it, and Draco knew he couldn't. At least, not unless she agreed.

"Well, his initials could spell out—well, I guess they would spell out Sam, now wouldn't they?"

Hermione stared at him uncomprehendingly, Draco thought. He loathed spelling it out for her, and if she wasn't going to understand, he'd have to find some other way to propose, but then she opened her mouth and she wasn't smiling so his heart sank and his mind raced even as he listened to her words.

"You... you don't think that would be absurd?" she asked. No, he did not think marrying her would be absurd, and he couldn't fathom why she would think so, but he did think her question was an absurd one.

"Of course not. You just gave birth to my baby, and I—you know I love you." The way she turned her head away, a guilty look on her face, stunned him. "You do know that, don't you?"

"I've never understood why you would. I stayed with you all that time fully expecting you to dump me at any moment to be with Parkinson, because I knew you were engaged to her. But I took what you gave me, and I hoped it would be enough. I hoped I would be enough."

Completely horrified, Draco grabbed the hand that did not hold their baby to her breast. He couldn't believe he had done exactly as she'd feared. No wonder it was hard for her to believe that he had ever loved her and loved her still.

"I do love you. And once I realized that I did, I thought I'd found an escape from Pansy. Then I did a stupid thing and without you, I saw no other way. If I couldn't have you, I didn't want anyone else, so I resigned myself to her. But you have to understand that I always loved you, and no one else but you."

"Even so, Draco, we haven't spoken to each other in months. You've been with another girl. What if she—"

And Draco knew what she couldn't say, and he couldn't blame her for thinking it, even as everything that made him Draco Malfoy recoiled from such an idea. He turned her chin so that he could see her eyes, to make sure that she was paying close attention.

"I did not sleep with Pansy. You are the only one I've ever been with in that way."

"She's engaged to you. You've announced it," she replied softly.

"I don't care. My parents picked her out for me, but they can have her back. We're not married. I can still return her with the receipt."

The words made a tiny smile tug at the corner of her lips just as he hoped they would.

Draco kissed the pad of Hermione's thumb, his eyes locked onto hers. Then he kissed each of the fingertips on her hand and her soft palm.

"You've done this by yourself for so long. Let me take care of you. I don't want you to be alone anymore. I will work harder than I've ever worked in my life to keep you. I can't promise it will be easy, but I will love you and I will try so hard. Will you let me make an honest woman out of you?"

"It would be a cruel thing to do to Parkinson," she sighed.

"She is cruel herself."

"Everyone will think you are too," she replied worriedly.

"I only care about what you think."

"And I only want to be with you."

"Is that a yes, Mrs. Malfoy?"

"It is, Mr. Malfoy."