PLEASE READ: Thank you as always. I have a bittersweet feeling right now because this is the last chapter. I'm sad it's come to an end but I'm also glad to have another one under my belt. Good thing about this chapter is that is it the longest one I have ever written. I thought about doing an epilogue but if I did it might be short. If you guys want one let me know and I'll think about it. It will heavily effect my decision. Thank you again to all of those who have stuck with me through the good and the bad. I appreciate it more than you know. Enjoy Chapter 24.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.

Blaise hurriedly rushed into the hospital to see Ginny, Harry, and Draco. "Where is she?" He hated the fact that Draco was here and wondered how and why he was here before himself.

Harry stood. "I'll walk you to her room."

"Why are you all out here?"

"She doesn't want to see anyone but you."

Blaise beamed at this information and followed Harry down the hallway. He turned in the doorway and saw Hermione lying on her side sobbing. There was also a healer checking on her.

"Hermione?"

"Oh Blaise." She lifted her head.

He took a seat beside her bed and pushed her hair out of her face. "What happened?"

"She had what we call an ectopic pregnancy." The healer said.

"What?" Blaise looked down at Hermione. "You're pregnant?"

She shook her head quickly, releasing more tears.

The healer coughed. "Essentially the ectopic pregnancy terminated the fetus. I'll leave you two alone."

"Hermione…"

She cut him off before he could go any further. "Blaise I'm so sorry."

"No, Hermione this isn't your fault."

"No you don't understand." She sniffed.

"What are you going on about?"

"I kissed Draco."

He removed his hand that had been stroking her hair and went to stand by the window with his back turned towards her. After a long moment he spoke again. "It's him isn't it?"

"Blaise…"

He began laughing. "Did you even love me at all?"

"Blaise you are one of my best friends." He laughed again. "What is so bloody funny?"

"All in a few hours I lost my best friend, my girlfriend, and a baby I didn't even know I had."

"I don't want to lose you, Blaise. You were there for me when no one else was."

"Exactly. I was there when he wasn't. I was there to pick up the pieces that he left behind. He left you, Hermione. And you're just going to forgive him instantly?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I'm in love with him."

Blaise scoffed. "So I was just you're rebound."

"No you were my best friend."

"That you shagged." He shook his head as he finally understood. "You were just using me."

"No. This is all coming out so wrong."

"I'm going to go."

She stood slowly and found it was painful to move. "Please don't."

"What do you want from me? You want me to just stand around and watch you two be happy? Do you know how torturous it is for me to be in the same room as you at this moment?"

She was standing directly in front of him but he had his arms crossed. "I-I don't…" She couldn't even find words.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. When he pulled away he flashed her his famous smile full of bright white teeth. He put a stray hair that had fallen out of her messy bun behind her ear, kissed her forehead, and walked out, leaving her behind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Draco saw Blaise storm down the hallway and past him. He stood quickly and chased after him. "Blaise!" But Blaise didn't stop in fact he walked even faster so Draco began to run. "Blaise!" He reached out and at the moment he touched his friend's upper arm he felt like he was being sucked through a small tube. He looked up to see he was in a small apartment. He guessed this is where Blaise was residing. "Blaise, man."

"What else do you want from me?" Draco didn't know how to respond. "You win. She doesn't love me. She loves you. So," he began to speak very slowly, "what else do you want from me?"

"You're my best friend, Blaise."

He scoffed at this. "Yeah evidently I'm everyone's best friend."

"This wasn't what I wanted."

"Yeah well it's what you got; a girl and no best friend."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A few days later, Hermione was settled back into her room at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. She was looking out her window when there was a knock on her door. She turned around to see her best friend.

"I was just checking on you."

"I'm fine, Harry." She smiled.

"Ginny's making soup. It should be done any minute now."

"I think I should find my own place Harry."

"What do you mean? You know you're always welcome here." He walked closer to her.

"I know and I love you for that but I think I should just be on my own for a while. I have the money and a secure job."

"He told you about your parents didn't he?" She nodded her head. "I'm sorry Hermione."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I knew what I was doing when I placed the charm on them and I knew the risks."

"So you're really moving?"

She smiled. "I am."

"Do you know where you'll be going?"

"No not yet. I'm actually going to look today."

"Hermione don't you think this is all a little fast?"

She sat down on the end of the bed. "What do you mean? I've been living here…"

"No that's not what I mean. Hermione, you just lost a baby." When she didn't say anything he continued. "It's okay to be sad." He sat down next to her.

"I'm just not ready to talk about it okay?"

Harry nodded. "It's really done with you and Blaise, isn't it?"

"Harry I know he was supposed to go in to Auror training and I don't want this to affect that at all. He deserves at least that."

"I assure you he will still be accepted into the program. He's a great guy with great skills."

"I know."

"And what about Malfoy?"

"I care about him."

"Even after he left you for a year?"

"Harry I don't know how to explain it."

"Come here." He put his arm around her. "You are the best person I know, you know that?"

She scoffed. "I don't know how you can say that, Harry. Look what I did to Blaise."

"You are the best person I know because you know what you want and you're not afraid to go for it and your forgiveness is overwhelming."

"I'm not a good person if I hurt people in the process of getting what I want."

"You didn't hurt him. You did the right thing by letting him go and one day he'll understand that."

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "I love you, Harry."

"I love you too." He kissed her temple.

"Hem-hem." They turned to see Ginny. "Hermione there's someone here to see you."

Ginny moved from the door way to reveal Draco. Hermione could feel Harry's arm tense around her shoulders.

"I can come back if this is a bad time." Draco said.

Hermione looked towards Harry as though asking him for permission. He stood, "No we just finished our conversation." He left the two behind to talk.

Hermione stood from the bed and walked over to the window.

"Hi." Draco said, unsurely.

Hermione turned to face him, smiling. She saw his posture relax. "Hi."

"Hermione I…" He seemed to struggle for words. "I guess I never really apologized to you for what I did." She nodded in agreement. "So I'm sorry for leaving you like that. It was a mistake. Don't get me wrong I don't regret going to Australia and finding your parents. I just…if I would have known things would have played out like this I would have never been so selfish. I mean I shouldn't have been selfish in the first place."

"You could have wrote me or at least replied to Harry so I knew you were alright and what did you expect me to do, sit around waiting for you for no one knows how long? I thought you were never coming back." She spoke softly, without anger.

"You're right. I was just in a pretty dark place."

"Why? I don't understand. The war was over. You had me."

"I had just lost my parents and I figured they would throw me in Azkaban for being a Death Eater."

"And when you found out you weren't going to Azkaban?"

"I left for Australia the day after."

"Why?"

"Because I had just lost my parents and I knew if I could get yours back that part of me would be happy again."

She sat down on the window sill, still facing him, her arms crossed. He walked quickly across the room and knelt in front of her. "Draco…"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Hermione. I was a selfish prat. I was childish and I didn't realize what I was doing to you."

She bent down and placed a soft kiss on his lips. "It's going to take some time."

He sighed and stood, nodding. "I understand." He began to walk away.

She stood as she said, "But I want to try."

He turned around. He didn't have the expression on his face that she thought he would. She thought he would be happy, joyful, excited but he just looked confused and almost sad.

"Why?"

She smirked. "Because I'm still in love with that boy in the Room of Requirement kissing me for the first time." She moved closer to him. "Because I'm still in love with that boy on the Astronomy Tower listening to every detail about my Muggle life. And because I'm still in love with that boy who woke up the next morning and told me he loved me."

She kissed him again, but this time on the cheek. When she pulled away he stopped her and kissed her on the lips.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I cannot believe you found a place on your first day out looking and more than that its move in ready." Ginny exclaimed as she enlarged the last moving box containing Hermione's things.

"I know. It's incredible. It's the perfect size, price, location, everything." Hermione beamed, charming the boxes to unpack themselves into the proper place. The clothes hung themselves in her closet. The pots and pans went to the cupboards. The books placed themselves orderly on the book shelf in the living room. And her pictures neatly propped up on the walls.

"Hey Hermione?"

"In the bedroom!"

Harry walked into the room. "I just got called into work. Something about alarms going off. We think it's the guy who killed the muggle girl. I have to go."

"Oh my. Go." Hermione said. She could see the worried look on Ginny's face.

"Be careful." Ginny whispered as she walked over to Harry.

He smiled at her. "Always." He kissed her square and left.

"He's going to be fine, Gin." Hermione said as she sat down in her desk chair.

"I know. It's just I really worry about him now that he's out of training and a real Auror. It's scary. He's chasing down bad guys…guys who want to kill him."

"Ginny, you do realize you're talking about the boy who killed the darkest most powerful wizard ever?"

They both laughed. "Yeah I guess you're right." She looked at Hermione who was looking at her hands in her lap. "Do you want to talk about it? The pregnancy? The boys? All of it?"

"I don't want to talk about it but I guess I should huh?" She took a deep breath. "Well you know how Blaise and I got together. I mean you were there after all."

"You never told me you slept with him."

Hermione sighed. "I guess I was a little ashamed to be honest and not because of Blaise but because I wasn't in love with him. I'm just not normally one of those people who can shag someone without being in love." When Ginny didn't say anything back she continued. "So I found out I was pregnant about a week before we left Hogwarts."

"Oh Hermione why didn't you tell me? I could have been there for you."

"I know you would have. I just wasn't sure what I was going to do and I didn't want to tell anyone before I did. Anyways I got home and everyone welcomed Blaise with open arms and then I got to thinking maybe this is the guy I should be with. I mean with Ron and Draco gone, Blaise was, well he was amazing."

"But you weren't in love with him." Ginny interrupted.

"I know it sounds crazy and I tried so hard to have that type of connection with him I just couldn't make it happen. And I was going to tell Blaise after our special dinner in celebration of us completing school but then we were sitting a dinner and he had just told me that he invited his best friend for desert. I didn't even think twice about who it would be. Blaise was about to tell me something when Draco showed up and punched Blaise."

Ginny gasped. "He didn't?!"

"Unfortunately he did. Once I made sure Blaise was okay I slapped Draco and got out of there as fast as I could. I just I was in shock. I was dealing with being pregnant and Blaise and then all the sudden the guy I've been in love with and pissed off at comes strolling in like he's fine."

"I can't imagine how that felt."

"Seeing him…I couldn't even breathe Ginny. I wanted to cause him as much pain as he'd caused me but at the same time I just wanted to hold him and kiss him and tell him I loved him and that everything was going to be okay. I know I sound like a stupid girl."

"No you don't Hermione. You're just a person and feelings are normal." She smirked and Hermione laughed at her. "Continue."

"Well you know the rest."

Ginny smiled. "Oh no. No I don't actually. I know that after you saw Draco in the restaurant you came here and they both followed you. Blaise went up to your room and talked to you and eventually they left and then later that night Draco came back for you." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Next thing I know we're at St. Mungo's. What happened with you two?"

"I was in the shower and he came in there. I didn't oppose."

"He got in the shower with you?"

Hermione nodded. "I still feel guilty about it." Hermione continued to tell Ginny her perception of what happened over the time that had lapsed between then and now.

When she was done Ginny sighed. "So you and Blaise…you two are done?"

"He won't even speak to me Ginny."

"And you and Draco? You two are together?"

"I suppose you could say that. We're taking it slow."

There was a sudden tapping on the window. Hermione opened it to a small black owl. She took the parchment, read the letter, and smiled.

"Who's it from?"

Hermione handed the letter to Ginny.

Astronomy Tower. Midnight.

Ginny giggled. "That is so romantic but how are you supposed to get into Hogwarts?"

Another owl appeared with another letter. Hermione read it. "It says apparate."

"But no one can apparate in or out of Hogwarts." Ginny stated.

Another owl then appeared. Hermione opened it. "This one says 'Don't worry. I set it up.'"

Ginny smiled at her. "Harry is going to be so mad."

They both laughed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At exactly 11:59 p.m. Hermione apparated from her small flat directly onto the Astronomy Tower. When she arrived she saw Draco leaning over the railing. He smiled and leaned up. She took this opportunity to give him a chaste kiss.

She whispered. "Déjà vu." He handed her something. "What's this?"

"I read it."

She looked down and saw that he had handed her a very torn up copy of Romeo and Juliet. "Is this…?"

"Yes. I read it cover to cover. Once right after you gave it to me. Once when I found out about Potter's scheme. Once when I was bored in the Manor. Once when we were at Fleur and Bill's cottage. Once when I was drunk after the war. Once when I was in Australia." He smiled at her flabbergasted face. "It's very fitting for us which I imagine you already knew."

"I can't believe you actually read it."

He lifted her face with both of his hands. "I not only read it. I slept with it. I wept with it. It was you when I didn't have you. It was my way of keeping you with me."

"Even when I lied to you?"

He pushed some of her hair behind her ear. "Hermione, I never stopped loving you. Not even when I found out you were with me just for information. Not even when I watched you get tortured. Not even when you weren't speaking to me. Not even during our fight in the Chamber of Secrets. Not even when I left you. Not even when I found out you were with my best friend."

"Oh Draco…" He kissed her passionately. She smiled. "Who would have thought Draco Malfoy would fall in love with a Mudblood? But that was the plan after all." She giggled but his face turned to stone.

"Don't call yourself that."

"But it's what I am." She smirked and looked down at her wrist. She pulled up her sleeve a fourth of the way and said, "Remember this?" Referring to the time the slashed her own wrist.

But that small slash was not what Draco noticed. "Oh Hermione…" He took her arm and lifted her sleeve even more revealing the word "mudblood."

"Draco…"

He rubbed his hand over her arm and then lifted it to his face. He took her hand in his and kissed it. "I will always protect you."

Thanks for reading.