A/N: I was going through my Google Docs and found this I'd written in 2018. I posted it on Tumblr with one of my manips; a bridal pic I especially favored. I have so many of these things; mental ramblings that I've jotted down on something...kind of like little scribbled notes on half-used napkins. Anyhow, I hope it gives you a smile.

Ch 29: Meant to Be

He'd always known this day would come.

Always.

Ever since the day he saw that bushy mane squeeze it's way into the train compartment where he sat going to Hogwarts for the first time.

The witch owning it asking about a toad, of all things.

Trust his initial encounter with Hermione Granger to be one where she was helping someone else. His eleven year old mind didn't comprehend the event, but his spirit must have understood the significance of the moment. It whispered to his soul in a quiet knowing that ran shivers down Draco's spine.

She's the one. The one you'll marry.

Her?

Oh, please. Please not her.

While at school, he found her bossy. Overbearing. She showed off to the professors. Thought she knew everything. Nearly did, too.

Insufferable mudblood.

And that was the rub. She was one of them. It didn't matter that she was best in their year, or that with time, she would grow to be one of the most fetching witches in their class. It didn't matter that magic rolled off of her in tangible waves of power.

It didn't matter.

She was other.

It took a war for Draco to see that other was exactly what the wizarding world needed.

What he needed.

Intelligence carried more weight than bloodlines. Beauty shone best in the spirit of compassion and sacrificial giving.

He didn't deserve her.

But he would have her. To love and to cherish.

For now and for always.

Hermione ducked her head, a tiny smile the only evidence indicating she'd heard her husband's whisper.

Husband.

Draco Malfoy was her husband. Her husband as of fifteen minutes ago, to be exact. She could hardly wrap her mind around the fact. It defied all logic.

Her intellect had put up a fight at first, incredulous at the very notion of her and Draco becoming a couple.

But her heart eventually won the battle. She was glad. No, scratch that. Truth was, Hermione was deliriously happy. Who knew Draco would end up being a source of pure joy?

She'd always thought him handsome. On the outside, that is.

But his words? Ugh.

His sneering? Ugh, ugh.

His racist beliefs? Triple ugh.

Then something changed. Or rather, something cleared.

His attitude. Her opinion.

It had not been easy at first. Deep wounds take the longest to heal. But then it happened. A shared joke. A wink. Easy smiles, no longer strained or forced. Then, mutual glances that grew to prolonged, longing stares. Expressing without speaking their rapidly changing emotions. A bashful touch of the hands. Their first kiss.

That initial kiss had been the turning point for Hermione. Her mind could no longer silence the pleas of her heart. Never the one to withhold information, she told him how she felt, only to find out he was way ahead of her. It was the one subject Draco totally bested her in, for he had long known their destiny.

They were always meant to be together.