It had been a week, three days, nine hours and seventeen minutes since Hermione's date with Draco, not that anyone was counting. She was on cloud nine, could see the goodness in everyone; she felt like no one could do any wrong. She worked with pleasure and, at her lunches with her friends, held hands with her beloved and looked at him in such a way that it disgusted her friends. Now she understood how Ginny and Harry felt.

Now one week, three days, nine hours and eighteen minutes later, she was sitting at her desk working viciously to get all her work done before the weekend. She had another date with Draco planned tomorrow evening and she couldn't wait. Only twenty-six hours to go.

Ron came in then and Hermione greeted him warmly. "Hi Ron! How are you doing on this lovely day?"

He just blinked at her and sat down. "I'm fine. All right?"

"I'm splendid!"

"It's nice to see you! Sorry I haven't made it to our usual lunches."

"That's fine. Busy with work?"

"Yeah. There've been a couple protests that have threatened to become more violent near the Ministry, but it doesn't seem to be too serious. They're protesting stupid things like better wages for the workers rebuilding Hogwarts. It's stupid though because the construction people aren't the ones protesting. It's some young, rebellious kids. The construction workers are perfectly fine!" He sighed. "Just got to stay on our toes, though. It means more paperwork for me." He groaned and Hermione sighed.

"I just wish everything could stay lovely and peaceful. Isn't everyone tired from the war?"

"Guess not. Most of the protesters are those who weren't in the war."

She shook her head. "Sometimes I get so sick of people." She smiled. "But not now. I love people. They just all need to understand things sometimes."

"I may regret this," Ron began slowly, "but how was your date with Draco?"

Hermione smiled like a fool, making Ron blink at her sudden change of character, and she put her quill down.

"It was amazing," she sighed, and Ron laughed.

"You look—never mind. What did you guys do?"

"He took me to dinner and we talked about everything under the sun."

"Really."

"Yes. And he told me everything," she said dreamily. Ron raised his eyebrows.

"Everything?"

"Yes. About his feelings, the reason why he got a job as an Auror, the constant reminder of our past, why he did what he did; there was a lot of explaining."

"And you're not upset?"

"No! Why would I be? It was understandable."

Ron blinked. "Wow. I didn't think you'd be so forgiving."

"Well, it was in the past. It's weird to think of the way that we met, though. I never thought I'd date someone like him, especially after all that he did in the past."

He nodded and bent down to tie his shoe. "Yeah, it was weird. One run-in at Flourish & Blotts and all of a sudden you guys were going out. And he wasn't even going to Hogwarts then either. Well, neither were me and Harry, but still. I'm just glad he was good to you, though he nearly killed himself when it ended. It was bad enough that he'd erased your memory, and I thought you'd be—"

He noticed her bulging brown eyes had lost their dreamy countenance when he surfaced and he suddenly cowered. "What? What did I say?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What? I—" He cut himself off when realisation dawned on him too late. "I thought you said he told you everything!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing! Heh. Must have been talking about someone else." He rubbed his neck uncomfortably.

She stood up dangerously. "Ronald Bilius Weasley you tell me everything. What the hell was this all about my memory being erased?"

"Merlin, Hermione. You should warn a bloody person before you say things like that!"

"Ron!" she shouted and he grit his teeth.

"I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Ron, so help me God, I will hex you if you don't tell me right this instant."

"I'm not allowed! Someone else is going to hex me if I do!"

"I will hex you and that other person if you don't tell me right fucking now!"

"Fine, fine! But don't hex me when I'm done. Hex Draco."

Hermione closed her eyes and Ron began to blurt out the story.

When he was finished, Hermione nearly blew a casket.

"WHAT THE HELL!" she shrieked and then paused. "Wait. What does that mean? When…hold on. When did we break up then?"

Ron frowned. "A long time ago. After that kiss during the war we went out for eleven months or so and then broke up, but we had little flings here and there. Don't look at me like that, it's just how it happened! Our last one was right before you and Draco got together, maybe a couple weeks before. Though we snogged when you guys were together that one time…but anyway, around two years ago."

She almost blew another casket. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL! I thought this whole time that we'd broken up April of this year!"

"Well, it was April, but of 1999."

"SO MY MEMORY'S BEEN ALTERED THAT MUCH? Oh my goodness. I need to talk to Draco. MY MEMORY? Sorry Ron, I—I need to go cool down."

Ron, who was near shivering now, was gripping the arms of his chair. "Did I ever tell you you're a real fright when you're mad?"

"Yes. Many times."

There was a very long, awkward pause as Hermione attempted to control her temper.

"Er, can I go…?" Ron squeaked.

"Yes!" she nearly shouted and Ron scrambled out. After he shut the door, he sighed, relieved that he hadn't been hexed.

"Mental, that woman is," he muttered as he walked away.

Inside, Hermione began pacing furiously. "What the hell? How did he do it? And I wanted it? How the hell did that happen? I have to ask to see his memories. Maybe he has it in a Pensieve? Why the hell would he pursue me again? Is he mad? Am I mad? My Merlin, I must be. I must be going mad. Mad!" She gripped her hair in frustration when someone knocked on her door.

"Yes?" she forced out.

Genna opened the door. "Ms. Granger, Michael's sent the reports."

"Okay." Hermione was nearly shaking with the effort to stay calm. "Just put them on my desk. I'm going to have to take the rest of the day off."

"Oh. Why?"

"P-personal reasons." The look on Hermione's face must have scared Genna because she did as she asked and ran out with a quick, "Hope you feel better, Ms. Granger!"

Hermione closed her eyes but set about packing up and donning on her jacket before Flooing back home. She screamed. Then she sent an owl to Draco.

Draco,

Please come to my flat right away. It's urgent.

-Hermione

"I can't believe he erased my memory. I can't believe he erased my memory. I can't believe he erased my fucking memory," she muttered to herself as she paced. At his lunch hour (did she really have it memorised? How pathetic!), she heard a knock at her door and she flew over to open it.

"All right, Her—" He cut himself off at her state. "My God, what's wrong with you? Did something happen?"

"Draco," she said in her false calmness. It sounded so fake even to her own ears. "Won't you come in?"

Draco stepped in with the knowledge that he was probably going to get yelled at. For what? He had yet to find out.

Hermione closed the door quietly, locked it, and then turned around. "YOU ERASED MY BLOODY MEMORY!" she exploded, and Draco's eyes grew wide.

"What?"

"DON'TLOOKAT ME LIKE THAT! RON TOLD ME!"

"He told you?"

"HE TOLD ME EVERYTHING! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THAT!"

"You wanted it!"

"HAVE YOU BEEN LYING TO ME ABOUT EVERYTHING?"

"No! Calm down and let me explain!"

"YOU HAVE ALOTOF EXPLAINING TO DO!"

"Let me explain," Draco repeated patiently.

Hermione took a deep breath and sighed through her nose. She took another deep breath. "How did our relationship start?" she asked finally. "Tell me everything from the beginning. And I mean everything."

"You may want to sit down," Draco advised, but Hermione shot him such a withering look that he backed down and sat down himself.

"Like I told you, I didn't go back to school to finish our seventh year like you did. I had tutors at home and so I didn't meet with a lot of our old classmates. One day in early September, around a year after the war, we ran into each other at Flourish & Blotts. We were both buying textbooks for school. We chatted and we just seemed to click. We were suspicious of each other, of course, but we were both so tired of war and fighting that we just gave up in keeping up our old prejudices, me especially.

"So we hit it off and we planned another meeting. Butterbeer, you said. And so we met at the Three Broomsticks and talked some more and suddenly we were owling back and forth and I was beginning to like you more and more. Once I got over my general idea of how you'd been at school, I realised how deep of a person you were. And I guess you realised that about me as well because when I asked you out in, around January, you accepted.

"After that we dated for about a year and a half. After our N.E.W.T.s, I had so much trouble finding jobs and I was too afraid to apply to be an Auror because of my Death eater status, even if I regretted it immensely. You were so supportive during that whole time. You were really happy too, during the early years of our relationship. We even had a song: 'Necks To You' by Lorcan D'eath. You used to love that song. We were at the Three Broomsticks on our first date and that song started to play and we danced to it. We went on a walk later and I kissed you then. It was a lot more romantic than kissing in an alley." Draco smiled at the memory and Hermione narrowed her eyes. She had taken a seat by now, listening attentively.

"I helped you move into your flat with Harry and several others of your friends. That's how I knew the shortcut to your flat. I'd walked it hundreds of times. I was with you when you got your job and you promised to write a recommendation for me if or when I applied to be an Auror."

"Am I the recommendation that Harry was talking about?" Hermione gasped, and Draco nodded grimly.

"You're to thank for my job. I've been working here for longer than any other place I worked at since we graduated school. But anyway, after I stopped being so timid and self-sacrificing towards you—I didn't feel like I deserved you—we started to fight a lot. It was so out of character to me, being so self-sacrificing and trying to atone for what I'd done in the war, but that was all you'd known during our relationship. I was always there for you in the beginning, at your every whim, and suddenly I wasn't. You were brassed off at that and I was tired of you depending on expecting me to constantly be with you."

"I would never expect that of you!" she exclaimed.

"That's because you didn't know me then."

"So our relationship ended because I couldn't handle you not being by my side twenty-four seven? Merlin! Blame it all on me, then!"

"Let me finish! I'm not blaming it on you. I'm just saying that my sudden change of character unnerved you and we got into fights. We could've dealt with these fights except for that fact that I started drinking a lot to deal with it and you disapproved of that."

Hermione nodded. She still disapproved of drinking one's problems away.

"That caused even more fights and then Daphne Greengrass got divorced from her husband. You've seen Daphne; she's beautiful. So you started getting insanely jealous when I went to go comfort her. You saw me going to her at every beck and call instead of yours and you started to get jealous and that caused even more fights. And then you snogged Ron a couple months after our first year anniversary."

Hermione frowned. "Yeah, he told me that I snogged him, but I didn't know that it was so close to an anniversary." She had felt bad about that. She'd used her best friend that had been in love then with her and had cheated on her boyfriend at the same time.

"Yeah, ours. And I saw you two, and that image is probably going to be seared in my mind for all eternity. That's why I was angry when I saw you kiss him at Ginny's celebration gathering. Well, frustrated anyway. I felt like nothing I was doing was working and that you were going to end up with Ronald Weasley anyway."

"Continue," she ordered, and he obliged.

"And then it all suddenly seemed to go downhill after that. Not really suddenly, I suppose. I drank more thinking that you didn't love me, and you had no idea that I had witnessed your snog and tried to keep it a secret from me. I tried hinting that I'd love you even if something happened that threatened to break us apart, but you pretended that nothing had happened. It hurt me that you couldn't trust me with such a serious infraction, so I drank even more and then at an office party that I was invited to, I got smashed and woke up naked next to a coworker."

"Oh, Merlin. He told me about that too. I can't believe you did that."

"I can't either. It was terrible and I was blessed that I couldn't remember a thing. And I felt so horrible that I had to go smoke to clear my head, and I never smoke. And obviously after that I told you and it broke your heart which broke mine and broke our relationship."

"And then?"

Draco took a deep, shuddering breath. "Merlin, and then…and then you told me you wished our relationship had never happened, that you wished that I had died, that you wished I'd never pursued you and that you hadn't said yes to going out with me." He closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed thickly. "You said a lot of awful things to me that night we broke up and the days following. It was like all of the good times we'd had could not add up to that one awful deed that I was so resentful of."

Hermione could see herself being like that, but she didn't tell him.

"And then you told me over and over that you wished you could just erase us from your memory. You even went as far as to ask Pansy for a recipe for a selective memory-erasing potion and then gave it to me. I think you were just trying to emphasise your point, but I took it too seriously and brewed it up for you, thinking that it was going to be for the best. The best for you, anyway. The same time I did that I brewed up a poison to, well, you know."

"I can't believe you did that either."

"I couldn't imagine living in a world where you didn't love me. Living a month and a half without you was absolute torture."

"Whatever. Go on."

He sighed and looked at his hands. "You were hurt when I gave you the potion, even though I didn't understand why then, and the look of absolute disgust in your eyes was enough for me to drink my potion and then you drank yours."

"Merlin! I cannot believe you would do that!" Hermione stood up, incensed, and opened her door. "Get out! I don't want to hear anymore!"

"Will you just listen to me, damn it? You asked me to tell you!"

She glared at him. "You erased my memory and almost killed yourself!"

"You're the one that wanted it! You told me, and I quote, 'I wish I could just erase our whole relationship and just pretend like it never happened!' End quote. You were miserable with and without me and I was miserable without you. There was no way you and I could get back together with so much…baggage…so I thought anyway, and so I wanted to end everything."

"That's so stupid of you!"

"I know. Ron rightly convinced me of that. After he got over you, of course. When he saw us happy together, he realised that he wouldn't have your love again and moved on. At least he could accept that. I couldn't."

"Shut up about that. Ron and I have been over for a long time. Apparently."

Draco nodded. "Yeah."

She shook her head. "These weird feelings I've been having about him are just memories of the feelings I used to have about him. It makes sense now. They were just feelings from the past." She took a deep breath. "Did you create those too?"

"I guess in order to erase the feelings you had for me, you needed strong feelings you'd had for someone previously to take over."

"But it didn't work very well. It just confused me," said Hermione slowly. "Subconsciously I knew that Ron and I were over." Draco nodded. She scoffed suddenly. "But how are you still living? Why didn't you just kill yourself?" she sneered.

Draco grimaced. "Pansy caught heed of it and tampered with my potion. I got terribly sick and broke out in green boils for six months."

She snickered and he glared.

"It was quite painful, thank you. But six months was enough time for all of them to convince me to keep my life and another year to get a job as an Auror. As hard as it was to be near you, I couldn't stay away from you. Part of your charm and my punishment."

Ignoring that last bit, she replied, "I'm sure our relationship was in the papers too."

"It was. A hell of a lot. But you know the head editor of The Daily Prophet and Luna from The Quibbler. And then you threatened the head editor of 'Witch Weekly' with immense pain and bribed her with a hell of a lot of money so she didn't breathe a word of our relationship ever again. I still don't know how much. And you told everyone to never mention our relationship ever again. And I mean everyone. Even my mother wouldn't talk to me about it when I needed her to. I broke her eventually, but the others wouldn't. Until recently, that is."

Hermione frowned. "So all of our meetings were planned?"

"Not by me, I swear. But I think Harry, Ron, and Ginny had a lot to do with it. That's what I meant by recently."

Hermione pursed her lips, at a loss of what to say. Everything was beginning to make sense. The constant badgering of Penelope and Luna, that line in The Daily Prophet about her and Draco, the strange coincidental meetings, the seemingly odd remark from her old neighbor, the open arms Harry, Ron, and Ginny had welcomed him with…this was all so, so strange.

She was confused, hurt, angry, terrified at what she'd lost; the emotions were relentless. He had to leave.

Draco looked at her then and hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Hermione, I'm so sorry about everything, but I—I still want to purse this relationship with you again." His Adam's apple was bobbing and his voice was thick.

"Draco I can't…I can't even think about that right now." Her voice was limp, impassive.

He swallowed. She closed her eyes and rubbed her eyes.

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Just…just go."

"What? Hermione, I swear it won't be like again. You can trust me. I swear it."

She took a couple deep breaths. "Draco, please go."

She was scarier when she was calm and collected like this.

"Hermione—"

"Just go."

Draco stood stock still for a minute, staring at her defeated figure. He put a hand into his pocket then and pulled out a small, glittering object. He placed it onto her kitchen counter. And then he left.

Hermione buried her head in her hands, attempting to fathom everything.

"Merry Christmas!" she exclaimed happily. She threw her arms around him.

"Why so happy?" he asked, a little startled at the onslaught.

"I love Christmas time! It's great. And I'm so glad you decided to come Christmas shopping with me. Decorating my parents' house is going to be so much easier this year. It's nicer to use magic at home even though I'm still in school."

"That's what you get for having an early birthday."

She smiled. "I'm going to Flourish & Blotts."

"I'll go with you. Don't want to battle this crowd alone."

She didn't say anything but took his arm.

They entered the bookshop and she led him to the history section.

"Mum wanted a book on some magical history. It might bore her, but she asked for it. I'll get Dad a mug like I do every year and a quill, maybe. They were really wary of magic at first but they're okay now. Even a little interested."

He tried a tight smile and she sighed.

"Why are you so stiff?" she asked. "Don't even think about everyone else. It's just two friends shopping around."

"They're all staring."

"We should be used to it. It's been a year already."

"Yeah, but…"

"Oh, come on."

He followed, watching her with guarded eyes as she piled books together.

They went out for a butterbeer break and then were at Madam Malkin's for robes. She gave them a coupon for a discount at her cousin's jewelry store where they went next.

"My cousins will love some necklaces. I'm sure your mum would like some kind of jewelry too."

"Yeah."

"Come on, lighten up! It's Christmas time!"

"I know, sorry." He tried to smile again and she kissed his cheek.

"Well, thanks for trying." She didn't notice his quick inhale as she turned away.

"Hello! Oh, look at that!"

"What?"

"My cousin is going to love that necklace! And my aunt too. I'll get them matching ones."

"Good. Let me find something my mum'll like." He went off by himself and she continued to browse.

They both purchased slightly costly items for their female family and friends and then they stopped at a little café in London for coffee.

"Muggle places aren't too shabby, you know," he said. "This is probably my favourite café around here."

She smiled. "I like these hole-in-the-wall shops. It's like a secret present." She took a sip of her warm coffee and he gazed at her with affectionate eyes, smiling. "What?" she giggled, and he shrugged.

"Nothing."

"You're never going to guess what I got you," she said haughtily, and he smirked.

"Sure about that?"

"Yes. Undoubtedly so."

"Let me guess. A—"

"No! You can't guess. That ruins the fun of it!"

He chuckled. "You'll make me burn with curiosity?"

She smiled mysteriously.

"Fine. Then I guess I won't let you guess what your present is."

Her face dropped a little but she stayed impassive. "Okay." Her eye twitched a little and he laughed.

"I know you're dying to know."

"No, I'm not! Besides, I can wait till Christmas."

"Right. We'll see about that." He winked and she couldn't suppress her smile as she shook her head.

Christmas Day did, in fact, come, and she did manage to live without bugging him about it once. Her parents were sort of appalled by her eagerness to open her presents that year.

She, wanting his to be special, opened all of her other gifts first. By the time she was done, his little box was sitting right under the Christmas tree surrounded by brightly coloured paper.

"Who's that one from?" her mum asked.

"Don't you remember? He dropped it off earlier," her dad replied.

"Oh, right! Friendly boy, he is."

She smiled and unwrapped it quickly. It was a velvet box and she suddenly felt something grip her heart. She opened it slowly, almost expecting the gift underneath. Her mum nearly fell over.

"What does he mean, giving you that?" she exclaimed.

She ignored her mother as she stared at his gift with wide eyes. It was a promise ring, rather simple. It was a band that had two hoops on its ends that interlocked in the middle. Right where the hoops connected was a very small diamond imbedded in it that sparkled in the Christmas lights.

She pulled it out of its case and put it onto her ring finger.

"Are you two…dating?"

"No!" she exclaimed. "We're really good friends."

"I may be old but I'm pretty sure that really good friends don't give each other rings like that. Especially if they're different sexes," her father said sternly.

"Yeah," she replied absently. "We're just really good friends." The light caught on the diamond and it enchanted her. "The best." She couldn't contain her excitement. In another burst of passion she hopped up to her feet and vanished all the rubbish.

"Thanks Mum and Dad!" She kissed them and ran to her room to owl a certain someone.

A/N: Well, joke's over now, I guess. But how will this turn out? Will she forgive him? Is this the end of the story? Is Harry Potter going to save them all (again)? Stick around to find out! Unless it's the end of the story in which sticking around would do no good...but tell me how you'd like it to end! Or how you imagine it will end. Your reviews are appreciated! Love you guys!~