The NEWTs were over for the seventh years. They had been living on the edge of sanity for the past few weeks and now they were done. Lives felt empty. When you have worked hard for something and that something suddenly disappear it leaves an empty space. Very few of the people that had taken their finals actually knew what they would fill that space with. Draco knew. Ginny knew. Harry knew. Hermione did not.
The results from the exams were all they really were waiting for. There wasn't really a question of who would come best out of them all, but just how well would she in reality do?
No one really knew, not even Hermione herself. How could she? She had an idea of course, but those things were as uncertain as the weather. She thought she had done ok, not great, but still ok.
Just after the last exam was finished wedding preparations began. Ginny and Draco were getting married. Narcissa and Sirius had decided to wait a bit and make their wedding more private than the one Ginny and Draco would be having. No one had asked the young couple what kind of wedding they actually wanted. Theirs would be a large one; it would take place at the Ceremony where they would be officially out of Hogwarts. Everybody was in a hurry, it all had to be perfect for them, because it would be extra nice for the two of them to have some happy memories to look back on in the years that would follow. Nobody knew what the future held in store for him or her. The flowers had to be perfect, responsibility of those were handed over to Professor Sprout, Dumbledore would be in charge of the marriage ceremony and Sirius of the entertainment along with his two assistants, Fred and George.
(The three of them had been given the strictest of instructions, not one single body was to be harmed before, during or after the wedding by anything made by them.)
Minerva would be in charge of the musical side of things and the house elves would, despite Hermione's protests, provide the food.
Hermione was to be Ginny's maid of Honour and Draco had shocked the crap out of all of them when he announced that Harry would be his best man. Most of the people present at that revelation kept wondering why he had chosen Harry to be his best man and not Crabbe or Goyle. But they reasoned that he had probably had a valid reason for his choice.
Draco just laughed when he heard the rumours. "Draco had to chose Potter as his best man, it was in the prophecy." Or "Draco chose Potter because Ginny wanted him to." The two of them had been standing in the broom-shed one of the days after the last exam. Packing up their brooms to take them along with them from Hogwarts.
Neither one of them had been speaking all that much until he had asked Harry about Hermione. "She is fine, a bit anxious, wants the results to come as soon as possible. How's Ginny doing? How did she fare on the exams? I haven't had the chance to talk to her about it yet." Draco had shrugged.
"I don't know, to be honest I haven't been talking to her all that much lately. I never seem to get the time or the occasion. I really want to talk to her, but then I get all uncertain. Not really the Draco Malfoy you all know and love, eh?" They had both laughed. Harry had laughed so much that he had to take of his glasses and wipe his eyes with his sleeve.
"Love's the word, Malfoy. But I know what you mean. After Dean broke up with Hermione, which I am eternally grateful for, I really wanted to tell her how I felt, but she wasn't ready for it. So I just kept being her friend. I was getting the feeling just before the incident in the locker rooms that she was over him, but every time I would try to tell her she would do something that threw me completely off track. In a weird way I am grateful that Ginny decided to intervene. I am almost a 100 % sure that it wasn't your idea."
"Not really. But when she did come up with it it sounded like a good idea for some revenge towards Granger, I couldn't go around and take my revenge out on my own grand-father, now could I?"
"That seems like a wise line of thoughts. I am not sure that your mother would blame you all that much if you had done it, but as she raised you as something as rare as a Slytherin with something that resembles manners, she can hardly blame you for not doing it, can she?"
"Not really, and I am sure that my father would mind if even less. I have discovered that he likes it when someone is playing pranks. Just don't play them at him and he is all for them." They had both grinned and packed their brooms, polishing kits and extra equipment together in an amicable silence. When they both had been finished they had looked around before Harry opened his mouth.
"So, I guess this means no more Quidditch at Hogwarts for us. At least for a while. Kind of sad. I have been playing Quidditch here, at the Gryffindor team for seven years. Ever since you and I fought in the air over Neville's remembrall. Do you remember?"
Draco had nodded. "Yes. Do you remember the first time we met? In the robe-shop. I kept lecturing you on which one was the better house. And on the train when I offered you my friendship and you refused. I was mad at you then."
"Gee, you don't say. But it has been fun, hasn't it? Us being enemies? If I have enemies like you, what do I need friends for? If things had been all right we might have grown up as brothers, or cousins. If my parents had lived, I would be living with them and Sirius wouldn't have been sent to Azkaban. It is amazing what might have been."
"Yeah… if only my mother hadn't acted out on her impulses everything might have been different."
"You might not be born."
"That's true…uhm… Harry, want to be my best man at the wedding?"
"I get to arrange a bachelor party for you?" Harry's eyes had lit up at that idea.
"I really don't think that's the basic idea of a best man, besides Hermione and Ginny would kill you if they ever found the two of us in the proximity of a real bachelor party with a stripper. I think the meaning of having a best man is that you should make sure I appear at my own wedding."
"Were you planning on not doing that? Because if you were I would have to kill you, no personal feelings, just a Weasley family tie."
"No, I was not planning on doing that. But will you be my best man? I could ask Crabbe or Goyle, but then I would have to explain it all over again. Or I could ask the Weasel himself." Draco's mouth began to smirk at the last idea.
"Yes, I'll be your best man, if only to stop you from asking Ron and giving him a heart attack."
"That's nice. If you'll excuse me, I have to go and be fitted for some attire for the wedding."
"You're excused. But have you planned where you'll be going for an honeymoon?"
Draco hadn't actually thought of honeymoons until Harry had mentioned it, but it seemed like a good idea. Today, two days after the discussion in the broom shed he had booked Ginny and himself on a honeymoon straight after the wedding. He figured they needed some privacy.
***
The results of the NEWTS had arrived. It was no surprise to anyone at all that Hermione had managed to have perfect scores in every subject, thus receiving one of the best results in Hogwarts ever. Draco had done all right in everything but Care of Magical Creatures, but he figured that it really didn't matter as much in the larger scale of things. Ron had managed to get one more subject than Ginny and was ecstatic. She on the other had had received the number of NEWTs that she had been hoping for and was therefore not disappointed.
Harry was somewhere in between Hermione and Ron, he had done well, but not outstanding. He simply lacked Hermione's ambition. He had no ideas to what he would do afterwards. As long as he was a certified wizard he was happy. Besides now he wouldn't have to live with the Dursley's when he was on summer vacation any more. He was free. Free to do whatever he pleased, within the boundaries of the law of course.
Now he had to partake in Ginny and Draco's wedding, he didn't mind it all that much really. It was weird how quick Draco and he had gone from being enemies to something resembling friends. As soon as they did realize that they hadn't family ties that forced them to be enemies it disappeared. Here he was. Going to be best man at his former enemy's wedding. Gee, things sure changed.
After the NEWTS-results arrived the day of the wedding came closer and closer. The day before the wedding Harry had wanted to arrange a bachelor-party for Draco regardless of what he'd said, unfortunately Hermione had caught the idea, and forbidden him to do any of that kind. Sometimes having a girlfriend spoiled some of your fun. Fortunately she paid him back later.
***
"I do."
"By the power invested in me by the Ministry of Magic, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Draco leaned over and kissed his wife lightly on her lips. It felt nice to be able to do it in public. Ginny didn't like having everybody's eyes on her and reddened. Somewhere in the world at the same time the "man" formerly known as Lord Voldemort shrieked a girly high-pitched shriek before going up in smoke before the eyes of Lucius Malfoy.
At Hogwarts however Draco pulled back and grinned at them all. But it was Hermione who stole the moment. "Harry! Your scar is gone!!!"
FINITO:
A/N: Well… I am finished. I might do some rewriting later on, but for now… this is it. For those of you who have patiently awaited this chapter… I'm sorry for taking so long. But here it is… If you were hoping for a sex-scene… well… too bad. Now go check out my fic Harry Potter and the Return to Hogwarts .
I still don't own these characters… All credit to those who do.
I actually wrote about Harry as an essay for my final exam in English in High School. I also had to write about racism in Britain, the only chapter we hadn't covered in the text-book…
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