Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my ideas. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Hermione heard something or someone shuffling about. She tried desperately to open her eyes, but just couldn't seem to muster up the strength.

"How is she?"

"The same. She still hasn't woken up yet."

Hermione listened to the two very, very familiar voices and tried to place them. She knew them - of course - but she was simply too tired and too weak to decide who they were.

"Blimey, Hermione." said the second voice.

Hermione tried again to open her eyes, but it seemed to be no use. She tried to figure out where she was and what had happened to her, but she was struggling. Everything felt like such a blur.

She knew that she wasn't at her temporary home in London with Draco, or at Hogwarts, because this bed felt completely unfamiliar to her. She wasn't at the Burrow, or Grimmauld Place, and she wasn't at her parents' house either.

So, where was she?

"Shh, shh, love. Mummy's still sleeping." the first voice cooed softly.

Suddenly, it all clicked in Hermione's mind.

Violet.

She remembered Draco proposing to her, and the news of the War, and her water breaking. She remembered giving birth to her daughter. She remembered Bellatrix attacking, and -

She remembered being hit with the Cruciatus Curse.

And she remembered nothing further.

She heard the soft crying of a baby - her baby. Then she placed the two voices: Draco and Harry.

If that War had been occurring whenever she had last been awake and Harry was here... that meant that he had been successful and it was over!

This meant that Draco and Violet had gotten away from Bellatrix!

Hermione knew that she had to open her eyes, she had to use all of her willpower, all of her strength.

"She'll wake up, Draco." Harry said softly.

"But, it's been days, Potter! We've been here nearly five days now, and she hasn't moved an inch. What if..."

"Do not go there, Malfoy."

Hermione needed to show them she was okay.

Well - not exactly okay. She was struggling to do anything at this point. But she knew that she would be okay. And that had to comfort them.

She heard herself emit a small whimper that silenced the room, leaving Violet's soft cries being the only sound.

"Did you hear that?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Hermione? Hermione, love, it's me." Draco whispered.

Hermione felt a hand land on her own, and she knew it was Draco's just by the feeling. She attempted to move her own fingers to intertwine them with his. She knew from his gasp that she had been at least somewhat successful.

"Potter, g-go get a Healer." Draco whispered.

She heard footsteps fading away and knew that Harry had listened to Draco.

"Come on, love. Open your eyes, please. Open your eyes for me and our daughter."

Our daughter, Hermione mused in her head. She loved the sound of that. She knew - that for her daughter and fiancé, she had to open her eyes. For them.

She whimpered once more, trying desperately to open her eyes. She fluttered them a bit before they finally opened, revealing the bright world around her.

"Oh, Hermione..."

Hermione turned her head slightly, moaning in a small amount of pain at all her tiny movements. She took in the sight of Draco holding their tiny daughter in his arms.

Draco - with one hand reached out, grasping her own. With evident tear tracks down his cheeks, looking just as devilishly handsome as ever, even as he looked tireder than she'd ever seen him. And Violet - her baby Violet - who was crying softly in Draco's arms, with her small sprinkling of white blonde hair on her head.

She opened her mouth taking in a deep breath of air before attempting to speak.

"Move slowly, love, okay? You've been through a lot." Draco whispered.

"H-hi." she squeaked out, her voice sounding weaker than she'd ever heard it.

Draco got up from his chair, sitting on the edge of her bed and leaning down to press a kiss against her forehead.

"Wh... what happened?" she said slowly.

Draco looked pained for a moment, turning his head away from her gaze to look down at Violet. He took a deep breath as he caught her eye once more.

"I remember Bellatrix h-h-hitting me with the -" she started.

"Yes. And after that you were unconscious. You kept fluttering in and out of consciousness for a little while while I was finding Sophie and Violet." Draco started.

"Sophie!" Hermione shouted - though it only came out as a somewhat loud whisper.

"She's fine, Hermione. She's at home with Ella." he said, squeezing her hand ever so slightly. "But... anyways, we were rushing to get you to St. Mungo's because you weren't, well... right. And then you..."

Hermione nodded her head slowly, edging him to continue. She noticed the pure pain in his stormy grey eyes and she knew that what had happened to her wasn't good nor simple.

"You started bleeding. The Healers said it was from the Cruciatus Curse. It sort of, I think, tore something in you, as you had only given birth a few hours ago. It was just too much for your body to deal with."

If Hermione had been forcing herself to pay attention before, she definitely didn't need to anymore. She knew just how serious bleeding after giving birth could be. Instantly, she was terrified that she couldn't have anymore children.

She struggled to sit up, gasping as everything hurt at her sudden attempts to move.

"Hold on, Hermione." Draco whispered.

He pulled his wand out of his pocket, pointing it at her bed. The mattress suddenly curved upwards, allowing her to rise into a sitting position. She weakly held out her arms, ignoring the immense amount of pain she was in.

"Let me hold her." she said, her voice cracking with every syllable.

"Are you sure you're strong enough right now?" Draco asked, the concern evident in his words.

"I have to be. I need to hold my baby." Hermione whispered, tears suddenly sliding down her face.

Draco nodded, shifting Violet easily into her arms, as if he'd shifted her into someone's arms a million times already. As Violet rested in her embrace, she felt herself start to slowly relax. She bowed her head slightly, gasping in pain, before kissing her daughter's soft forehead.

"She's stopped crying." Draco whispered with awe.

Hermione smiled down at her daughter before look back to Draco. He had a mystical expression on his face, one that would have made her laugh with amusement if their situation hadn't been so dire.

"All she needed was you." he continued.

The door suddenly opened, revealing her very tired looking best friend, and a friendly looking female Healer. Harry's eyes widened as he saw her and he immediately rushed over to her.

"Harry." she whispered, a small smile on her lips.

"Oh, Hermione. Thank God." he whispered back, walking around to the other side of the bed and sitting down opposite Draco. He leaned forward, kissing her cheek softly.

"Hello, Miss. Granger. I am very glad to see you awake. You've given us all quite a scare." the Healer said, walking over and holding out her wand. "My name is Healer Andrews."

"Hi." Hermione whispered back.

"How are you feeling?" the Healer asked.

Hermione shifted Violet in her arms softly and winced before she could stop herself.

"It hurts." she squeaked out.

The Healer nodded in understanding. "That's to be expected after what you've gone through. Where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere." Hermione answered quietly.

Healer Andrews nodded. "If you could give your baby to Draco, that would be appreciated. I need to run some tests on you, okay?"

Hermione looked down at Violet, not wanting to ever let her out of her arms. She kissed her forehead once more before shifting her back into Draco's arms. The next ten minutes went by with the Healer performing complicated wand movements over Hermione, emitting interesting coloured glows.

"Well, everything seems to be in order. You're doing just fine. I'll be back in around ten minutes to give you your potions." she explained.

Hermione muttered a quick thanks before the Healer left the room. She looked back to Draco, who instantly placed Violet back in her arms. She smiled graciously at him before looking back at her girl.

"Now, can you please explain to me the rest of what's happened to me?" Hermione asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

She watched Draco exchange a look with Harry, both of them simply nodding at one another. She became increasingly nervous and forced herself to remain calm by the thought of Violet in her arms.

"The Healers put you into a coma-induced state to give your body time to heal and react to the potions, so that's why you've been unconscious. We've been here for around five days now. They managed to stop the bleeding pretty quickly, I think." he started.

"Draco... can I have anymore children?" Hermione whispered fearfully.

All throughout her life, she had always wanted to have more than one child. Of course, her Violet would be enough, but as she had grown up as an only child, she wanted the chance to give her child siblings.

She watched for a flicker of any sort of emotion on Draco's voice. And then suddenly, just as her fear was becoming too much, he smiled.

"Yes, love. Yes you can. They saved everything. They said that if you woke up on your own, everything would be just fine." Draco explained, a grin on his face.

Suddenly, Hermione felt herself burst into tears of thankfulness. She was so overwhelmed with everything that had happened and everything that she had been told and everything they had yet to tell her that she couldn't handle it. She allowed thick tears to slip down her face as she held Violet closer to her. She felt Harry's hand rest on her leg in a comforting pat, and Draco's hand come up to rub her cheek and wipe away a few tears.

This was her family.

. . .

Draco took a deep breath as he continued to console Hermione, as well as tell her more of what had happened during her time period of unconsciousness. He couldn't tell it in a continuous strand though, as Hermione kept interrupting with weak shouts.

"You killed Bellatrix?" she exclaimed.

Draco felt his face flame. He couldn't believe that he'd actually killed someone. He knew that he didn't have a choice, and he didn't regret it...

But still.

"Oh, Draco." Hermione whispered, tears falling down her face in waterfalls.

He continued on, speaking of how Sophie had suffered from Magical Muggle Exhaustion. The fear had appeared evident in her eyes, only leaving partially when he explained that she was perfectly fine.

"Draco... are we going to have to Obliviate her?" Hermione whispered fearfully.

Draco pressed his lips together, excited to tell Hermione about his solution to that problem. He knew that it would devastate Hermione if they had to Obliviate Sophie, and leave her life.

"Should I - er - go?" Harry asked.

"No, Potter. Stay. There's something Hermione and I have to ask you." Draco said, taking a deep breath.

He caught eyes with Hermione, who looked down at Violet before smiling. She turned her head toward Harry's, and Draco gave her a quick squeeze, letting her know that he was still okay with it.

After the last few days, where Harry had been there for him at every moment, helping him with Violet, Draco was more than okay with it.

"Harry..." Hermione started.

Harry suddenly looked more and more intrigued, he leaned closer to Hermione. She took a deep breath and smiled.

"Harry, would you be Violet's Godfather?" she said.

He watched as a whole array of emotions passed through his face, his eyes becoming misty. Draco knew a lot of Harry's short-lived relationship with his own Godfather, Sirius Black. Hermione had told him all about it.

"Her-Hermione..." Harry stammered. "Are you -"

"Don't even ask me if I'm sure, Harry. Of course I'm sure. You're going to be just as wonderful to Violet as Sirius was to you." Hermione whispered.

He watched as the two old friends had an emotion filled, yet silent exchange.

"Draco, can you take the baby for a minute?" Hermione asked.

Draco smiled, feeling glad to take their daughter into his arms again. He could hold her forever. Once he did so, he watched as Harry pulled Hermione into his arms, hugging her tightly.

"So is this a yes, then?" Hermione asked as Harry gently let her go.

He gave Violet back to Hermione, who looked at her longingly as she wiped her eyes.

"Of course it's a yes, Hermione. Thank you. Both of you." Harry answered.

Hermione smiled and Draco leaned down to kiss her forehead. Her eyes focused on him now, questioning.

"Okay, so now that that's done, what does that have to do with Sophie?" Hermione asked.

Draco smiled. "Well... I know we had thinking about Ginny as Godmother to Violet, but... I've looked up all the rules and if Sophie were her Godmother, we wouldn't have to Obliviate her."

Hermione's eyes suddenly shone with joy as she gasped. "Oh, Draco! That is brilliant!"

Draco just smiled, happy to see Hermione awake and content.

"Harry. What happened with Voldemort and everything?" Hermione asked eagerly.

Draco smiled sadly, knowing that Harry had a lot of talking to now do with his best friend - and not all of it was good news.

"I'm going to go speak with a Healer about how soon we can get you out of here while you guys catch up, okay?" Draco said, standing up from his spot and kissing Hermione's head.

Hermione looked up at him. "Don't be too long."

"I'll be back by the time Healer Andrews comes with your potions, okay?" Draco promised.

She nodded, and Draco kissed her lips before bending down to kiss Violet's forehead.

"Okay." she whispered.

"Okay."

As he walked out of the room, he heard Harry start to explain the events of the War. He heard Hermione gasp in surprise and fear. He heard Violet sigh softly. Draco started smiling, knowing that these three voices were ones he would be associated with for the rest of his life.

And that was perfectly okay.

Author's Note: please let me know what you think! and while you're at it, check out my other Dramione fanfiction titled Gone. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! 3 xx