I can make it through the rain. I can stand up once again on my own, and I know that I'm strong enough to mend…If you keep falling down don't you dare give in. You will arise safe and sound, so keep pressing on steadfastly, and you'll find what you need to prevail…When the rain blows, as shadows grow close don't be afraid. There's nothing you can't face…

Mariah Carey

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Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist and planted a trail of kisses up the side of her neck, resting his lips sweetly on the top of her cheek.

"You look stunning babe," he whispered into her ear. "How I ever managed to snag a woman as beautiful as you is beyond me."

Hermione grinned sheepishly as she turned around in his arms to face him. "You're too sweet."

Draco kept his hands planted firmly on her sides as she tickled his nose in an Eskimo style kiss before pressing her lips tenderly into his. She hesitated to pull away, and let her lips linger in the feel of their connection.

"You're beautiful," he repeated and her smile grew larger.

Hermione did look beautiful in her shimmering, mermaid-style, forest green gown. In contrast to her glowing appearance, she also appeared slightly mournful and sad as she carefully readjusted her hair in the mirror.

It was the night of the war anniversary and Ginny would be hosting the Hogwart's charity event. Each year the main event varied slightly, depending on who was hosting. There was to be the traditional silent auction as always, but this year there was also a ball included as part the main event.

Hermione had hosted the last few years. Her first year she added a memorial garden to the Hogwarts Grounds with the aid of the Herbology Professor, and had hosted the main event as a moonlit garden party. The second year, she let each house plan a special memorial for the students who had fallen from each other their respective houses to be put up in each common room. Last year, she raised funds to erect a commemorative foundation that would be placed in the Ministry in honor of the fallen.

It had been a lot of stress to plan the events on top of her regular duties at the school, so she passed on the torch this year. She was sure people would be grateful to have a little more excitement in the form of a ball. Although the event was always formal, it gave people the excuse to be a little flashier and have a little more fun during the mournful event.

Hermione's hair was put up in an intricate up-do. Typically, she hated having to tame her curls, but when she did, she did a bang up job of it.

Draco eyed her up and down hungrily, feeling unbelievably lucky that he would be toting around with this lovely prize the entire night. "Are you ready to go, lovely?"

"As I'll ever be," she expressed with a light sigh. "I just have to put on these last couple pieces."

"Let me help you with that," offered Draco as he took the necklace from her and aided with the clasp. Using the necklace as an excuse, he snuck in a few extra kisses across the back of her neck line and felt her shiver under the delicate impact of this touch.

"Behave," she scolded playfully as she carefully placed in her gemmed dangle earrings.

"How on earth can you expect me to do that when you look this ravishing?" Draco pretend to whine.

"You're going to have to. This is a sad day, remember? Act accordingly," she teased halfheartedly.

"Believe me, I'm heartbroken," he boasted with a contrasting smile. "Heartbroken that I'm going to have to wait until we get home to fully appreciate all of this." He flirtatiously pinched her butt.

"Draco, stop!" she scolded through a small fit of giggles as she swatted his hand away.

"Okay, I'll stop. I just love seeing you smile like that."

She was blushing slightly, "You're terrible. You know that?"

"Yes, I know. That's what you love most about me." He couldn't resist kissing her again as he wrapped her up his arms once more.

He felt her clutch onto him tightly and heave a sigh as the weight of the night settled into her. "I know today is hard for you love, but we'll get through it," he murmured sympathetically into her curls as he lovingly placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"You know I have to make a couple stops right?"

"I know. Tradition."

"That's right."

"Is Harry going to be there?" He wasn't sure where they were going, but he remembered that each year she and Harry would go out drinking each year before arriving at the Charity Ball. Although Hermione had cut back drastically on her alcohol consumption since she the time she lost control of it, she still made a point to keep Harry company to retain the tradition.

"No. I told him I wanted to take you this year."

"How'd he take that?" asked Draco smugly, happy to be replacing Potter in anything.

Hermione shrugged, "He seemed a little disappointed, but he was fine with it. I want to make one other stop first. If that's okay?"

"Wherever you want to go tonight, Love, I'm your companion through it all," he said willingly as he offered her his arm and they left to begin the night.

/

It was a warm night with a cool breeze that rustled a soft song through the graveyard as it passed through the delicate leaves surrounding them. Hermione woefully led Draco to the only two tombstones that mattered to her amongst the stony sea of remembered death.

Draco's hand was clammy, but she never let lose her grip.

"Don't be afraid," she said.

"I should be the one comforting you." Draco guilty admitted. He struggled to swallow as his guilt began to overwhelm him.

After what felt like the longest trek of his life, they arrived at the two graves.

Two tall stones marked 'Wendell and Monica Wilkins' loomed before them.

Hermione pulled out her wand and waved it over their names until they transformed to read 'Arnold and Caroline Granger'.

"I never even knew their names," regretfully admitted Draco.

"No one did in the end. I never got a chance to restore their memories so they died as Wendell and Monica."

Hermione knelt down as best she could in her dress and cleared away the natural debris covering their graves.

"I'm so sorry Hermione," choked Draco. "I would give anything to go back and fix this."

"I know." Hermione stayed fixated at the stones, looking lost in her own thoughts. This day was always difficult for her. Not just because it was a day to remember everyone who had been lost, but it always tempted her to drown all her pain and sorrow in a bottle. She had stopped carrying a flask in her bodice ever since that fateful night eighteen years ago, but each year she still thought about bringing one to help her deal with the feelings currently threatening to overwhelm her.

"My father would have loved you," she stated in a trembling voice, breaking the silence between the four of them.

"You think so?" Draco forced a small smile. It was a small consolation to know that her dad might have approved of him if he hadn't allowed Blaise to murder him in his sleep.

"Now my mother…" Hermione shook her head in disapproval. "The jury would still be out."

Draco laughed and helped her clear a few remaining leaves and twigs that she had missed.

With sorrowful eyes, Draco watched Hermione pull out her wand and transfigure two bouquet of fresh red roses. She carefully laid them down, one on each grave then placed her hands firmly on the cold stone, bracing herself for a moment before she stood back up.

They stood in silence for a few more minutes, letting the breeze pass through them as it flirted with the loose curls that were cascading down her up-do, causing them to bounce lightly. Hermione's eyes were still transfixed on her parent's graves, but Draco's eyes were set observing her sadness.

"I can't begin to fathom how difficult it's been for you to go through your adult life without your parents," he empathized. "You didn't get much time with them when you were at Hogwarts, then you had to be separated from them during the war…which one could argue was partially my fault as well…and then I ruined your last chance at a reunion. I'll never be able to make that up to you Hermione. I'm sorry."

"We can be here for our child. That's all we can do." It was closest thing that could be achieved in the effort of making up for a broken family.

"You know that I'll always be here for the both of you. No matter what we have to face from here on out, we'll do it together and I'll always be by your side. I hope that you know that."

She kept her eyes fixated on the ground beneath her and silently nodded her head.

"I wish I could change the past. As much as I love you, I regret that my life has brought so much pain into yours."

Hermione averted her eyes from the grave stones to look at him. She wasn't crying, but tears were brimming her beautiful brown eyes. "I don't regret you, Draco. The war was brought on because of Voldemort. You, and all the other death eaters only got the opportunities they had because of him. If he hadn't trained you all to be so comfortable with killing, and the idea of killing muggles, Blaise never would done this to begin with and you never could have been there to witness. The hatred I have is for Voldemort. I pity Blaise and I despise him," there was a clear anger in her voice as she said the name of her parent's true killer, "but you…you I forgive."

Draco couldn't have heard her right. "What?"

She repeated herself with a shakiness present in her soft voice. "I forgive you Draco, for all of it."

He instinct was to regret the concept. "I don't deserve your forgiveness. I don't deserve anyone's forgiveness for the things I've done."

"It doesn't matter, whether or not you feel worthy. I forgive you anyway. I can't hold onto this pain any longer. I have to let it go. I've held on far too long to all this pain and grief."

"Baby…" Draco was at a loss for words.

"I love you Draco Malfoy. Despite everything we've been through and all we've endured, I continue to be in love with you. That's never going to change. We have a beautiful child together and I know that we were brought together the way we were for a reason. I miss my parents, deeply, but I don't regret any of the decisions I've made to get to where I am today."

"I never wanted to put you through this pain. As much as I love you, if there were any way you could have avoid this pain, then I would have wanted you to take that path."

"There was no other path. I put a wedge between myself and my parents because I was trying to protect them, but I can't vanquish all the evil from the world. If you hadn't been involved, I'm still convinced Blaise would have gone to their house and ended their lives."

Draco disagreed. "He did it to make a point to me, to show off."

"No, he did it because he wanted to. He did it because Voldemort convinced him that kind of behavior was acceptable, that all human life isn't equal. He convinced you of the same thing at one point. A monster made you believe that muggles were worth less than me or you. You were misled. You were a victim too. When has anyone ever apologized to you for what you were put through?"

No one had ever apologized for the way he had been raised. No one had ever said they were sorry for filling him with hate, or for training him to be a killer of innocent people.

Again, he was at a loss for words to say.

"I'm sorry you had to be there to witness what Blaise did to them."

"You shouldn't be the one apologizing to me Hermione. None of this was because of you."

"I know that, but you still deserve to hear it from someone!" insisted Hermione as she placed a loving hand onto his shoulder and looked into his shimmering silver eyes. "I'm sorry your parents subjected you to Voldemort and raised you to be a death eater, Draco. I'm sorry you'll never be rid of that horrendous mark on your arm. I'm sorry you've had to spend the better portion of your life suffering the consequences for acting out on the hate that was instilled in you. I forgive you and I love you for everything you are. That's what I need this anniversary, for you to let me forgive you. That's how I overcome this. That's the only way I'm going to start to heal. I'll never get my parents back, but I'm blessed to still have you in my life. The world could stand against us and I would still chose to be right here, next to you."

Draco pulled her desperately into his arms and held onto her as though he would fly away if his hold wasn't tight enough.

"Thank you," he whispered into her ear. He didn't want her to see that he was crying, but she could feel his eyes betray him as his tears dripped onto her exposed shoulder. "You're the most beautiful person I know and I love you."

"I love you too, Draco. I love you too."

Hermione held tightly onto Draco, closed her eyes and basked in the security of his embrace.

/

Their next stop took Draco down memory lane. He hadn't been on this street since the night he convinced a muggle girl named Tiffany to step off of a roof, nearly to her death. That night Hermione saved him from a life sentence in Azkaban by rescuing the girl before she could hit the bottom.

"Why are we back here?" he asked curiously.

Tonight, she was sharing everything with Draco; opening herself and being vulnerable in ways she hadn't been in years. She didn't want to have anymore barriers between them. She wanted the freedom to love openly, honestly and freely. That meant accepting the reality of things and surrendering her pain for good.

"Every year I come to my Dad's favorite bar. The Stone Inn. It's been my ongoing tradition."

She hadn't stepped inside in so long, not since before Sophia was born. Since she made the decision to take control of her drinking she would simply stop by with Harry, pay her respects from the outside and then continue onto the charity event.

Now that she had Draco by her side, she finally felt the conviction to go inside.

"I use to come here with Harry every year," she explained. "We would get sloppy drunk until I could forget how much I hated my life."

"It almost seems like fate," spoke up Draco.

"How do you mean?"

"If this hadn't been your Dad's favorite bar, you never would have been around to intervene and save me from murdering that muggle girl all those years ago."

"I suppose that's true."

"In a way, you're my hero, you know that right?"

She broke out in a grin. "Yeah, I suppose that's kind of true, isn't it?"

"Thank you for that again, by the way." He leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

"What can I get you two?" asked the bartender as he made his way over to their end of the bar.

"Whiskey and water and whatever the lady wants," ordered Draco.

"Same."

"A lady who can hold her whiskey? Sounds like a keeper," teased the bartender with a wink.

Draco paid the man, took hold of their glasses and walked them over to a corner booth.

"I can still see how sad you are," he expressed regretfully. "It's all over your eyes."

"Of course I'm sad. I miss them terribly, still…always. That's never going to go away. I also haven't been in here in so long…it's odd to be back." She pushed an ice cube around with the tip of her finger before taking her first sip.

"Do you still want to go to the Anniversary Ball? We don't have to go, you know. You're not in charge of anything. You're just a guest. Same as anyone else."

Hermione scrunched up her face as the liquid burned down her throat.

"Sorry, I should have gotten top shelf," apologized Draco in response to her expression.

"No, it's okay. It's kind of the point today, isn't it? Feeling the pain of everything as it is," she laughed it off. "I want to go. It's important. Besides, I think you just want to get me home early so I can take off this dress," she teased.

"I'm not denying that would be a plus," he smirked. "That's not why I offered though."

"I know. It's alright though."

"Will Sophia be there?"

"Of course. Landen will be there too, as will the entire Weasley family. Are you going to be alright with that? We don't have to stay the entire night if you don't want to."

"As long as I have you by my side, I promise, I'll be golden. It'll do me good to have the senior Weasel see you on my arm looking like that," he winked.

Hermione broke out in a genuine smile. "Hush."

"Every guy there is going to be jealous of me tonight, I assure you."

A flush of pink overcome her cheeks. "Shush!"

Draco tipped back his drink and helped Hermione finish off the rest of hers.

"Let's go, darling. Every woman there is going to wish she looked as beautiful as you tonight."

Draco extended his hand and helped her to get out of the booth.

Hermione stopped at the doorway, looked behind her and scanned the bar a final time as she thought of her father for a lingering moment longer, then stepped out with her fated love.

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A/N: Since today is the Anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, I felt compelled to update this chapter. R.I.P. to all of our favorite characters lost on that day!

Anywho, I'm a tad disappointed no one has submitted a fic for the PUTP one-shot challenge. It's not too late! Five more chapters to go!

Read & Review!

See you next chapter

-Jazzy1