A/N: So this is it! This is the end of the whirlwind of Unbecoming. Thank you to every single one of you for reading/reviewing! Thank you for letting me share this journey with you.

I might post an alternate ending and then you can determine which version you choose to accept. :) (if there's ever a chapter 33, that's what it will be)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As always, Enjoy!

EPILOGUE

The swells of the ocean lapping back and forth against the shore still put her in a trance to this day. It had been nearly two years since she had moved here and each day she still found peace in the sound of the waves. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, the scent of the ocean and clean air filtering through her nose.

She heard the chime of the door from inside the café and got to her feet. She was on break, but it was slow. A perk of living by the ocean was that it would be there in the next hour when she was off. She slipped back into the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

"Bloke's a real looker."

Hermione's eyes snapped open to her mother and shock flushed her face pink. "Mum!" she hissed, shaking her head.

Jean smiled, fine lines crinkling around her eyes. She handed her daughter a cup of coffee on a saucer and nodded towards the dining room. "See for yourself."

Hermione rolled her eyes and took the coffee to the newly occupied table by the door. On her way, she distracted herself by asking her other patrons if they needed anything. They all responded in kind and she smiled as she set the coffee down on the table.

Her entire body froze as she took in the sight of the blonde in the booth. He stared up at her; grey eyes flashing with that signature smirk plastered on his face.

"Granger."

"Dr-Draco?"

He gestured towards the bench across from him and she sank into it. Her legs had been ready to give out anyway. It was better to sit in the booth than fall on the floor. She knew it was rude, but she couldn't tear her eyes off of him. A thousand and one emotions swirled through her body and tears misted her eyes.

"You work here?"

"How did you find me?"

"Accidental," he said, grabbing sugar packets. "Rest assured, I was not looking for you."

She swallowed and dropped her eyes to his cup and saucer, watching as if mesmerized by the spoon as he stirred to dissolve the sugar. After a moment, she got to her feet and shifted nervously. "I should get back to work."

"When are you off?"

"An hour."

He gave a curt nod. "Would you mind if I waited?" he asked. "Or are you going to disappear the moment you walk away?"

"Draco…"

He sighed and tried to smile at her. "My apologies."

She nodded and looked around. Her eyes paused on her mother's concerned face as she watched their interaction. "I can't after work. I have to pick Andrew up from the sitter and then-"

"Andrew?"

His eyes flashed and his body went still as a statue. Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what he must be thinking and then shook her head. A small laugh escaped her lips. "My brother," she said and he relaxed. "I would have contacted you if…" She let the sentence go unfinished; unable to say the words.

He relaxed slightly and nodded. "After that then?"

She hesitated, but then nodded. "Meet me here at five. We'll be closed up and my parents will have him for dinner," she said and walked away.

"You know him, don't you?" Jean asked the moment they entered the office.

Hermione paced, fanning at her face with the top of her apron as she went. "Draco Malfoy."

Jean was thoughtful for a moment. It had been a few years since her parents' memories had been restored, but things were still hard to access sometimes. Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she recalled something. "He was not a nice boy," she said quietly and then watched her daughter. "But that's not it."

"Correct," Hermione said. She stopped pacing and forced a deep breath into her lungs.

Jean's expression softened. "He's the boy you left behind."

Hermione nodded.

"What are you still doing here?" Jean asked, reaching for the apron tied around her daughter's waist. "You're officially done for the day," she said, grabbing Hermione's shoulders and steering her out of the office. "If it goes well, bring him around for dinner, yeah?" she added and then pushed her into the dining room.

Hermione pulled a face at her mother before turning and smoothing her clothes. She slowly made her way to Draco and leaned against the bench she had vacated. "I'm off early. Want to get out of here?"

"Sure," he said, placing Muggle money on the table before sliding out of the booth. Once they were outside he looked around and asked, "Where to?"

"There's the wizard community in Sydney," she suggested. "Or Brisbane has some cool stuff to see downtown. Plenty of beaches," she added, looking at his expensive suit. "But you're not really dressed for that."

"You're the local. You pick," he said.

She nodded and led him down the path to her car. He paused as she opened the door and stared at her in confusion. "Get in, Malfoy. It's just a car."

He looked around and rubbed at his chin. "It's a Muggle death trap. I remember Second Year when Potter and Weasley used one of these."

She laughed. "This one is not enchanted to fly. I'll be driving on the road."

"Why not Apparate?"

"I don't have my wand with me," she admitted before taking her seat behind the wheel.

He was apprehensive as he slid into the passenger seat and jumped when she started the engine. "What kind of witch doesn't carry her wand?"

"A Muggle-born that prefers the Muggle lifestyle nowadays," she replied as she pulled out of her parking spot and merged onto the road. She laughed as he gripped the handle above the door hard enough to turn his knuckles white. She shook her head, her curls tickling her shoulders as she pushed the button to drop the windows.

"Relax, will you? These are safer than a broom."

He scoffed. "I beg to differ," he muttered, but couldn't help but smirk as she laughed again. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see," she said and let her gaze flicker over him for a moment, smiling as she drove them to their destination.

It was a twenty minute drive from Wynnum to downtown Brisbane. Draco had relaxed near the end, but had nearly jumped from the car the moment she parked. After she teased him again, they started to wander the city, taking in the tourist sights that she normally tried to stay away from. She thought the crowd would be safer; easier than being alone with him so soon.

They spent a majority of the afternoon just walking around. They grabbed lunch from a street vendor. He told her about his expansion and that he had stepped back from running the apothecary. Instead, he was CEO in name only and spent his days working on new potions. He still carried a close relationship with St. Mungo's and had improved a lot of potions already on the market for healing purposes.

She told him that she had come to Australia to find her parents. She had written them off long ago and feared that it might still be too late, but that the Australian Minister of Magic had contacted her saying there had been a development and they had had some success. That they wanted to try the new potion on her parents. It had been a slow process, one that was still going, but it had worked. After a few months, they had remembered their real names and their daughter.

She told him about her brother who was ten. That she didn't think he displayed any sort of magical traits. She launched into statistics about how it wasn't uncommon for Muggles to have a one-off child. She used Harry's mother's family as reference. When he turned eleven they would all know for sure. If he received a letter for magical education, she would tell him about herself. If not, they would wait until he was older to tell him.

When the afternoon began to turn into evening, they made their way back to the car and she drove them back to Wynnum. She had texted her mother saying she wasn't sure if she would be by for dinner, but that she was fine. She took them to the beach down the road from her house and parked. One of her favorite things to do was sit in the sand as she watched sun sink below the horizon. She grabbed the blanket from her trunk and gestured for him to follow.

When they stopped, she spread out the blanket and sat atop it, hugging her knees to her chest. He used his wand to transfigure his suit into a pair of long Muggle shorts and a plain T-shirt. She smiled as he sat down next to her and stared out at the waves as they crashed against the sand.

She knew that coming here alone with him meant having a real talk. It meant that they would have to talk about it. Her disappearance. But she had always known their paths would cross again. She had been preparing for this moment since she made the decision to disappear.

It was here now.

"You left."

She nodded.

"You told me that you loved me and then you disappeared."

There was anger in his voice. She knew there would be. She would have been livid if their situations had been reversed. "I had to."

He turned to stare at her. She lifted her eyes to his, taking in the pain and betrayal blazing back at her in the dark grey storm of his gaze.

"The war left us all with wounds to heal. Mine never healed. I never let them. My relationship with Ron dissolved; it was always meant to, but I could have handled it better. I started sleeping with Harry. He has his own faults in regards to that, but it kept me from truly healing. He went from being my salvation to being my poison.

"When I ran into you at that gala, I wasn't looking for anything to change. I didn't think I deserved change. I was just existing; going through the motions of life. Then you started to show me that things could be different. That I didn't need the potions to be happy. You were the wake up call I needed to turn my life around."

She paused to clear her throat and wiped away a tear.

"You showed me what real love could be and it terrified me. All I had known so far was Ron at the bottom of a bottle. He got sober to be with Lavender; not me. Harry kept me by his side, but never wanted me for anything more. You…" She inhaled deeply. "You went from my childhood bully to someone who thought I was the apple of his eye. I was this broken shell of myself. I wasn't worthy of your love. Not in that state.

"I only walked away from Harry to be with you. I wasn't strong enough to leave him for me. I knew the minute you woke up and saw that I wasn't deserving of your love that I would go right back to him. I didn't want to, but I would.

"I gave up the potions because you wanted me to. It wasn't my decision, but I thought it would make you love me more. That it was something I had to do for you. That you wouldn't love me if I kept doing them. Everything I did, I did for someone else. I had yet to make a decision that was for me. Since I was eleven years old, all of my decisions have been what was best for everyone else."

She reached for his hand and smiled when he laced their fingers together immediately.

"I had to leave because in order for me to truly get better, I had to want it for myself. If you were there, it would have always been for you; not for me. Not truly."

"I love you, Hermione. I never stopped," he said as he pulled her across his lap to hold her close. "I will never stop loving you."

"I love you too," she breathed into his shirt, clutching it desperately.

"Where did you go?" he asked.

"I went to Austria. When you and Harry left for the night, I told Healer Fairchild I wanted to go to whatever foreign program had an opening for an immediate transfer. Within the hour, I was in my new room. I stayed there for three months before I left and put myself in a halfway house for another three months. When I was out, I started living as a Muggle again.

"Six months later, the Ministry in Australia contacted me about my parents and I moved here. I've been here ever since." She plucked at his sleeve. "I thought about going back to England all the time, but I wasn't ready. I've planned our meeting over and over in my mind, but the more time passed, the easier it was to not think about it anymore. Especially once I started to get to know my parents again."

"Your mother was the one that took my order," he said.

"My parents own the café," she stated. "They invited you to dinner if everything went well."

He laughed, the sensation vibrating his chest and rumbling through her in turn. "And is it?" he asked. "Going well?"

She pulled back to look at him, her hand coming up to rest on his shoulder. "Depends on if you can forgive me or not," she said. "I understand if you can't."

"I understand why you had to leave, Hermione," he replied.

"Not just the leaving, Draco. Everything. The lying, cheating; everything." In the dying sun his grey eyes captured the golden hues of the fading light behind her. Her heart hurt at the sight of him; leaving had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. A sign that it had been the right thing to do at the time.

She took his silence as her answer and closed her eyes against tears. She tried to get off his lap with the intention of walking away, but he prevented any of that from happening. Instead, he sank one hand in her hair while the other tipped her head back. Slowly, his lips slanted over hers and she immediately melted against him.

She sighed with relief and moved her hand from his shoulder to his neck. Their mouths moved steadily against the other. Their emotions raw beneath the surface, but reigned in enough not to overdo. She pulled back first, resting her forehead against his.

"I've been sober for over three years," she whispered.

"I'm proud of you."

She smiled and kissed him again, both of them breaking into a kiss as his stomach growled. "Come on," she said, sliding off his lap. "Want to meet my family?"

"Please," he said, helping her up and then folding the blanket. They walked hand-in-hand to the car again, but before he let her break away to the driver's seat, he pushed her against the car and kissed her again. It was still on the gentle side, but it was just as breath taking as their kisses had always been.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"I've known your location for two years now."

She was shocked at that answer. Words failed her as she stared at him with wide eyes.

"Potter told me about your parents. I started working on a potion to help and once I found a formula that seemed to work, I contacted the Australian Ministry and asked them to track your parents down. I knew they would find you and you would come here eventually."

"Harry told you?"

He inclined his head. "We stayed friends," he admitted, a smirk on his face. "You know, since the Boy Wonder went and got himself friendless."

It hit her then; the rest of what he had said. "You developed the memory restoration regimen?"

"Yes."

One of her plans upon seeing Draco again when she finally allowed their paths to cross, had been for her to see if he still wanted her. If he wanted to start again, she was going to do so and take it slow. One day at a time. Hearing that he had come up with the one thing she had been unable to had that plan flying right out the window.

She launched herself at him, her fingers sinking into his hair to bring his mouth down to hers. This kiss was hot and heavy as her body pressed flush against his. He looped an arm around her back and lifted her onto the hood of her car. She parted her thighs to bring him closer. She moaned into his mouth as his hands went to her waist and unbuttoned her shorts. She lifted her rear in order for him to peel them down her legs. She kicked them off the rest of the way and freed him from his transfigured shorts.

She locked her legs around his waist and groaned as his arousal throbbed against her slick core. Her head tipped back as he brought his lips down to the side of her neck. He brought one hand between them and pressed his thumb to her clit. She flexed her hips in effort to chase the release only he brought forth from her. She hadn't been with anyone since him. She'd had no desire for anyone at all.

"I love you," she panted, her eyes open to the stars that were starting to sparkle in the sky.

"I love you," he returned as he positioned himself at her entrance and buried himself into her wet heat.

They moaned in unison. He didn't pause for her to adjust. Instead, he set a bruising pace. Neither of them expected this to last long. Too much need and want rolled off of them in waves. Hermione cried out as she came for him after only a few strokes. He continued to pound away at her through her orgasm, bringing her right into a second one. He followed her with his own and they sagged into one another as they came down from their high.

Aside from their panting, the only thing that could be heard was the waves hitting the sand. It calmed Hermione and brought a smile to her face as he brought his lips down to hers.

He pulled away and cleaned them up before they redressed. He then took her hands in his and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "If you're ready, I want us to try again."

"I'm ready," she said without hesitation.

"The past is in the past; forgotten. From this moment on, we'll start fresh."

"Done."

They both knew there was a lot to figure out, but for the moment, they were content in just taking in the breeze of the salty sea air. "Come on, let's go meet the other Grangers."

She laughed and kissed him again before sliding out of his hold and around the car to the driver's side. "One of these days I'll teach you how to drive."

"Only if you let me teach you how to ride a broom."

She groaned, but nodded. "That's fair."

He paled at her. "I didn't think you would have agreed to that," he said, taking his seat.

"Deal's a deal, Malfoy," she said as she revved the engine and backed out of the spot to hit the road again. She reached out for his hand and he squeezed it.

"Yeah, yeah," he replied and brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles. "I love you."

"I love you."

Saying that would never get old. It was a small step in the right direction. They had the rest of their lives to figure out the rest; a life that for the first time in a long time, Hermione was looking forward to. With Draco at her side, nothing was impossible.