Author's Notes:

I think that what I'll miss more than anything, in the completion of The Dark Side of Love, is all of the amazing reviewers. I couldn't have asked for a better group of loyal reviewers, especially for my first piece of fanfiction. Thanks to the regulars - Kou Shun'u, Blanche Dubois, FEAngel258, Liz Rose, Frozen Darkness, Raven Mizt, Varda, Pumpkins are Evil, devils chick1 - and everyone else who reviewed along the way. Thank you all so much for all of your feedback, questions, support, encouragement to keep going, and even your complaints. I feel as though I'll walk away from this a better writer.

Also, to Liz Rose, Raquel99, Lucki Me, Blanche Dubois, Pumpkins are Evil, devils chick1, spiderqueen156, thepinkspider, moony2187, TiarellaCordifolia, Frozen Darkness, Audrey, Nevavariel, Kylara and hugsalot22990, I enjoyed your Chapter 14 reviews a great deal. I'm going to post individual responses to your reviews as a review myself.

Jennifer is the most amazing beta I could have asked for. In spite of my occasional procrastination and waves of throwing several chapters at her within a short period of time, she always edited well, and edited promptly. Thank you so much for enduring my crazy writing style. I hope that you will consider beta-ing for me in the future, if you have the time.

Without further ado (which I apologize for…the ado, that is), here is the epilogue.

*****

Just because everything is different doesn't mean that everything has changed.

- Irene Peter

The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual - for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.

- M. Scott Peck

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

- Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker

She hadn't wanted to know what happened to them all. It wasn't that she didn't care, oh no. It was that she cared too much. She couldn't bear to hear that they were doing badly, that one of them was hurt… even dead. She shuddered at the thought. But what was worse… what haunted her late at night while simultaneously racking her with guilt… What was worse was that she didn't want them to be okay. She couldn't stand it if any of them were happy without her, if they had moved on and forgotten her. She knew that she would never be able to move on.

She had resigned herself to the life of a hermit. She had gone to Dumbledore, straightaway, and demanded that he hand over her diploma. She had declared any more time spent in Hogwarts a ludicrous waste of her time. Dumbledore, shockingly, had agreed. He had simply smiled, waved her into a seat, and answered, "Miss Granger, I wondered when I'd be having this discussion with you." He had, she realized then, known about her interest in the Dark Arts. Who was she kidding? Dumbledore knew everything. At least everything that went on in Hogwarts. They had discussed her recent activities, and he had not only demonstrated infinite patience and understanding in the matter, he seemed to feel almost… guilty. She wondered now, as ludicrous as it was, if he blamed himself for failing not only herself, but also Tom Riddle in the arena of academic challenges.

"Of course I understand, Miss Granger. You didn't know where else to turn. But your heart was never really in it, was it?"

No, of course not.

Well, not completely.

Not anymore.

It had been much too easy to leave school a year early. She had, of course, received glowing recommendations from almost all of her professors (and a letter of acceptable Potions competence from Snape), which earned her immediate acceptance to a University in Paris, where she had no trouble earning qualification as a Mediwitch. It didn't take long for the job to wear her down, however, and after a year in Kenya as a practicing Mediwitch, she realized she had to leave the world of magic behind, if only for a little while. It wasn't only the strenuous aspect of the work which had worn her out, but the memories that even a simple "Lumos" triggered.

Hermione resigned herself to Muggle life and managed to secure a teaching position at a Muggle university in Monaco. She had since done everything in her power to keep busy… to not wonder what had happened back at Hogwarts in her absence, to not think about where they were now, to not think about the other women who could be taking her place…

But Hermione had made her small fortune, her job had lost its urgency and any pleasure she had originally derived from teaching people had since dissipated. Even the beautiful French beaches did little to please her. Now she was at a stalemate. Now she was bored. Now she was lonely. And now her mother was pressing her on the matter of marriage.

She sighed and pulled on a sweater as she headed out onto her backyard beach. The skies were threatening a great deal of rain, and as a result she was alone in finding comfort in the sand and water.

It had been ten years now. Ten long years. More than the whole of her time spent at Hogwarts. One would think that something significant had happened, but it hadn't. Perhaps on paper… Sure, she'd gotten X and done Y but nothing in that time period amounted to Z.

She sighed and took a seat on the sand, rolling it between her fingers and watching the horizon, as if her ship would come in any minute. It took her a few minutes to realize that she was no longer alone on the beach. She couldn't make out the shape of her quickly approaching companion very well due to his long, beach-unfriendly cloak. But she knew from his stance and his pace that it wasn't a friendly sort of companion. She stood quickly and reached for her wand. But her wand was not at her waist, and hadn't been for many years now. She was surprised that the force of habit still remained, so strong.

Shit.

No matter, though. What about the wandless magic? What about the wandless magic she had not practiced in ten years? The wandless magic that she had earned the power for through the Dark Arts? The wandless magic that she had no right to, that she had since relinquished... Had she lost it? Could you ever truly lose an ability such as that?

She was about to find out.

She closed her eyes and focused her energy, pointing her right hand in the direction of her would-be attacker. Along with the spell came ten years of loneliness, of pain… Ten years of anger at herself and at them… They had pushed her too far… They had loved her too much… They hadn't come after her. They hadn't tried to find her. They didn't care. They were okay without her. They didn't love her enough. He didn't love her enough. Had he ever? With the "Petrificus Totalus" came a sob, but it didn't seem to damage the spell's effectiveness. On the contrary, when she opened her eyes, not only was her attacker frozen, but the entire landscape surrounding her seemed frozen. Merlin this was creepy.

Before she could give the matter much thought, before she could run back to her house for her wand, before she could call for help… Before she could move from where she stood on the beach, the air around her filled with the popping sound that signified Apparition. She whirled around in fear, half expecting to find more men ready to attack her.

Instead, she was greeted with several surly ministry officials.

After a long, embarrassing interrogation and spell reversal, one of the members of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad requested her presence back at the Ministry of Magic. She grudgingly agreed, not looking forward to the paperwork they would likely have her fill out… And the officials had all been mysteriously quiet on the identity and purpose of her would-be attacker, whom they had whisked away the instant the spell was reversed.

She didn't appreciate being kept in the dark, but they didn't make her wait too long.

Once they arrived in the lobby of the MoM, she was ushered into the elevator and taken directly to the Minister of Magic.

***

Neville Longbottom, the youngest Minister since 1640, rubbed his hands fiercely over his eyes.

"Hermione. It's good to see you. I wish it didn't have to be under such circumstances. Please sit down. I take it you haven't been keeping up with the... our world?"

She swallowed, took the seat in question, and shook her head.

"That's right. Although I thought I remembered hearing about you becoming a Mediwitch?" At her nod, he continued. "But the past few years you've been rather hard to locate."

Hermione smiled guiltily and nodded.

"That may be the only reason you're still alive. I'm glad that we found you when we did. There's so much you have to know, Hermione."

She wasn't sure if it was the fact that this was coming from Neville, that he was Minister of Magic, that she had just frozen an entire landscape, or if it was that she hadn't really been living for awhile now, but Hermione burst into laughter at Neville's statement.

He regarded her with horror. "Hermione?"

She sobered up as quickly as her laughter had begun. "I'm sorry, Neville, but you have to understand…"

"What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Never mind. Why am I in danger? Who have I made an enemy of?" She didn't ask the question that was repeating in her mind.

Who cares enough to want me dead?

Neville sighed and ruffled his hair. "You remember Ginny, of course."

She could see the involuntary flinch of pain in his face when he spoke Ginny's name. She supposed, as her memory flashed back to Neville's redheaded escort to the Yule Ball, that it was lingering heartache.

She nodded. "Ginny hates me now?"

Neville sighed and shook his head. "Do you… do you remember about… about the Chamber of Secrets?"

Suddenly everything clicked. Hermione didn't need him to finish the story. It was all playing out in her mind. Ginny had loved Tom. Ginny wanted Tom back. Ginny "had bigger fish to fry". Ginny brought Tom back and now the Wizarding world was feeling the wrath of Tom Marvolo Riddle and his fiery, red-haired mistress.

"Oh my god."

Neville looked up at her, surprised at the realization that she had stumbled into so quickly. His face broke into a feeble smile. "You've always been quick. Yes. Tom Riddle has returned."

He took a deep breath. Hermione knew what was coming.

"No. Stop. I can't know - I don't… I can't handle hearing this right now. Don't tell me what happened to them. Don't tell me about Harry and Ron… and… and Draco. Please."

Neville's face contorted into an odd expression. Hermione tried desperately not to read it.

"What do Ginny and Tom want from me? Where do I go? What do you need me to do? I'll fight. I'll kill. I'll die. I don't care. Use me if you need me."

Neville stared at her, and Hermione realized that it was probably not normal to have such disregard for one's own life.

Hermione took a deep breath, focused her gaze on her shoes, and attempted to swallow the lump that was steadily growing in her throat.

"Neville… I… I just… I don't have anything to live for. I'm not living. I'd rather die doing something worthwhile than continue to not live."

Neville frowned. "Hermione. I think you should get some rest. Come see me in the morning. We'll talk some more then. We must talk. There are some things you need to know, whether you want to or not. You have to know about Harry and Draco and Ron."

Hermione bowed her head, stood shakily to her feet, shook Neville's outstretched hand, and allowed the ballpoint pen portkey he handed her transport her to her quarters in the Ministry.


She was only able to locate the bed before drifting off to sleep.

***

Her dreams had been nightmares.

Hermione woke up shaking. The more she tried to focus and remember what they'd been about, the more quickly it all slipped from her grasp. She knew one thing, though. The dreams had been about them. She realized now that she had to know. She couldn't run from the truth anymore. She couldn't run from herself anymore. She couldn't run from her heart.

Oh, God. She threw on her robes, grabbed her portkey, and stumbled into Neville's office without so much as a knock on the door. She didn't know that he would be in a meeting, and she certainly never expected to find Harry, Ron and Draco staring back at her.

***

Hermione stood stock still for a solid minute, her hair flying in every direction possible, ignoring the hasty bun that was so feebly trying to contain it. Her face was slowly warming to a brilliant shade of red. The four men stared at her, and no one spoke. Finally, Hermione coughed.

"I…um.. I didn't mean to interrupt. I'm sorry. I'll just be outside."

She turned to go, but stopped even before the four voices called her back.

With a deep breath, she turned back to them, smoothed her robes, pushed back her hair, and smiled.

"It's good to see you all again."


That, her adrenaline-filled veins reminded her, is quite the understatement. Hermione had expected to someday see the corpses of these three men, but never again their living, breathing, bodies.

Ron smiled warmly at her and pushed back his chair, pulling her into a tight hug. "Oh, Hermione. Glad to see you're alright."

She beamed up at Ron, filled with incredible warmth at his kind words, and turned her attention to Harry.

He stared back at her with what could only be described as nostalgia in his eyes. He stood as well. "Welcome back, Hermione. We've missed you."

She welcomed his hug, and tried not to allow her mind to analyze his use of the word "we". Finally, after a lengthy hug and a shared tearful gaze with Harry, she turned to Draco. He wasn't looking at her. Instead, he was pointedly focusing on the desk. She frowned and took a step towards him, intending on telling him exactly what an awful, immature thing this was for him to do, but Harry grabbed her arm. She opened her mouth to protest, but he pressed a finger over her lips and motioned with his head towards Draco. Draco now had his eyes closed, and was speaking to himself.

'Oh, great. He's lost his mind. Excellent.' Hermione thought wryly.

After another minute, however, Draco stopped talking, waved his wand with a muttered spell and opened his eyes, swinging his gaze full on to Hermione. She had forgotten how blue his eyes could be, but she didn't have much time to reflect on it as he threw back his chair, crossed the space between them and swept her into a kiss.

'He may be crazy, but he's still an amazing kisser.'

As a self-reprimand for her last thought, she pushed him away and motioned toward the seat he had previously occupied.

"What was all that?"

Draco coughed and turned, shooting the other three men a questioning look.

Harry and Ron nodded and turned to Neville. Neville sighed. "I already tried to tell her last night, but she refused to hear anything about you three."

The three men in question turned towards her again, small appreciative grins on all of their faces.

"What say you, Hermione? Willing to hear about us now?"

She felt the blush spreading over her face. Those bastards. "Yes. Of course, don't be silly."

She conjured herself a chair and flopped into it, idly twirling her hair and glancing from one man to the next, awaiting explanation.

Draco took the lead, pushing some paperwork aside and taking a seat on Neville's desk.

"You know, of course, about Tom and Ginny."

Hermione nodded.

"Right. Well. After Voldemort's defeat and your…" Draco paused and glanced at his feet, "your departure… Things were quiet for awhile. The three of us even managed to… well… make peace. I suppose it had a lot to do with both our shared pain at the hands of Voldemort and in our other shared pain."

He looked up at her, but she chose to ignore the end of the sentence, knowing full well that she wasn't ready to confront anyone on that particular facet of their respective relationships.

She nodded and waited expectantly. "And?"

"Alright, so… After graduation… a little over a year afterwards, actually, my Mark began to burn fairly often. It wasn't like being called, but it was rather reminiscent of how it felt when Voldemort was in the room with me. I was a little concerned, as you can imagine, and as Harry and Ron were the only two… Well, aside from you anyway… the only two rational human beings that knew what I'd been through, I contacted them about it. They, of course, weren't helpful in the least."

Harry and Ron both scowled at Draco, and Hermione suppressed a giggle, which earned her a few scowls as well.

"Ron's mark burned at first as well, but it never amounted to anything. Finally, one day, I was called. I decided, "the hell with it" and followed, ending up in the old Riddle house with many of the other former Death Eaters. Tom Riddle stood before us, Ginny lounging luxuriously on a couch behind him. You can imagine the reactions."

Hermione raised her eyebrows and nodded.

Draco smiled. "Now, I, of course, was already in their good book for my… well… tutoring of Ginny."

The three other men shot him dark looks. This time, Hermione joined them in their scowling.

"Yes, well… How was I to know how this would work out? It's not as though I really expected anything to come of it. Even I wouldn't want two Voldemorts running around. Or even just a resurrected Tom. I'm not that much of a sadistic bastard. Anyway, I digress. They kept me after everyone else had left, and told me that they'd like me to essentially be Tom's right hand man. I, of course, agreed, because it's not generally a good idea to disagree with the Dark Lord on such matters."

"When I returned home, I immediately contacted these two. After several days of unproductive cursing and fights, we finally reached this sort of…" Draco smiled.

"…idea." Ron finished quietly.

Harry nodded. "We wanted to defeat them, of course. And we had certain advantages. Each had his own. Draco was in their inner circle. Ron possessed amazing mind control abilities and a link with Ginny, who was still attempting to keep up appearances at that point, and I'm… well…"

"The Amazing, Incredible Boy Who Lived," Draco finished, adding a bow. Harry scowled at his flourish.

Hermione sighed, uncrossed her legs and bit her lip. "So, what, you've been playing games with them for nine years? No one has been able to kill them yet? And why did they come after me?"

All four men shifted uncomfortably. Neville announced his intentions for coffee, and left the office.

Ron coughed. "There have been certain obstacles."

"Such as?"

Harry glanced at Ron before he answered her, concern evident in his gaze.

'Oh… Ginny…'

"Well… Tom and Ginny… They see you as a threat."

Hermione stole a glance at Ron and raised her eyebrows. "Really, now?"

Draco nodded and sighed. "I've had several screaming matches with them over your abilities."

He grimaced. "As you can imagine, these didn't end well for me. I told them that you were no good at the Dark Arts and that you'd been steadily losing your abilities since you left. They didn't believe me."

Draco sighed again.

"Tom is terrible with his obsessions, and it got rather frightening, to the point where we decided it would be best if we hid you, in spite of the excellent job you were doing."

Draco gave Hermione the first smirk she'd seen in years.

"We made Ron your secret keeper."

Ron flashed Hermione a feeble grin.

Draco intensified his gaze on her. "Not that it was easy to track you down, anyway."

Hermione ignored both his stare and his repeated emphasis on her disappearance. She paused, momentarily, and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. The amount of pain the three of them had suffered and her own suffering at not being with them was slowly washing over her, drowning her in a wave of melancholy. Finally, she opened her eyes and regarded Draco evenly.

"Then what?"

Draco sighed, looked over at Ron and paused before he continued. "Tom knew that at least one of the three of us knew where you were. He… Well… "

Draco paused and pushed his hair away from his face with his hands, bringing them down to rub his eyes. Despite his best efforts to hide it, Hermione noted the pained look on his face as he relayed the next bit of information. He had been through hell.

"He… figured out that it wasn't me… so he had Ginny bring him Ron. Obviously, Ron's Occlumency skills are the biggest reason that he was chosen to be your secret keeper. But in the face of Tom Riddle's Legilimency, no one really stands a chance."

Draco took a deep breath and looked over at Ron, who was fiddling with some papers on Neville's desk.

"After I discovered Tom's plan to confront Ron, we managed a week of Occlumency practice with Snape and the preparation of plenty of Aberro potion, counting on Tom using… harsher… methods than Veritaserum and Ron actually did fairly well. Tom tortured Ron for a week straight, at first drawing up nothing but Ron's worst memories of you. Tom began to get angry about that time, and after a day of his full wrath, he knew that Ron knew. It only took him a few more days after that to discover your whereabouts, at which point Ron was on death's doorstep."

"It's beginning to be a bloody theme."

Harry smiled weakly at Ron's muttered comment and patted him on the shoulder.

"But we got you out, and you've recovered extremely well, mate. You're a tougher man than I."

Hermione began to cry.

All three men stopped what they were doing and stared over at her, each shocked back to the present at the sound of her sobs, and each unsure of how to react. Harry leapt into action first, sweeping down to her chair and swallowing her in a hug. After a moment, he pulled away, stepping to the side and allowing Draco to approach her.

Draco slid from the desk, crossed the space between them, knelt in front of Hermione's chair and gently tilted her chin up with his hand.

Slowly and gingerly, he wiped the tears from her cheeks and pushed back her hair. "It's okay. Ron's okay. Look."

Ron stood gingerly and approached her chair as well, a sympathetic smile on his face.

Harry nodded and, catching Hermione's eye, looked to Draco and back at her with a smile on his face.

'Is it possible? All this time… all this time and he's… he's okay.'

She shook her head.

"All this time I was wallowing in self-pity and I was angry… I was angry with you all because I thought that you had never cared about me. I thought that you had all moved on in your lives without me and that I was so insignificant and that you didn't care enough to try to find me. And all this time, you've been risking your lives to save me."

She looked up to find three shocked expressions. Harry responded with a stare that clearly said, "This is how much I love you."

He loved her enough to let her go.

Ron coughed. "Quite honestly, Hermione, it didn't seem so much like you wanted us to find you too terribly."

She smiled and turned to find that Draco was staring up at her, his icy blue eyes appraising her carefully. She felt, not for the first time, as though he was reading her soul.

Finally, softly, he spoke. "Why did you leave?"

She looked away. She couldn't meet his eyes. She couldn't sit there and answer that particular question, not after she'd just gotten back, not while he was staring at her, and certainly not while Harry was standing beside her. But the cold blue gaze was watching her expectantly and she knew that she had to say something.

"Because I couldn't stay."

Ron laughed and received glares for his effort. He sighed heavily. "Look, we can't get into this now. We have to decide what we're going to do. I assume they know what happened and where she is?"

Hermione realized that his question was directed at Draco, who nodded, still watching her. "Tom told me that he will be 'dealing with matters at the Ministry tonight'."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

Draco seemed to understand her confusion. "Tom found the Dark Marks to be a bit distasteful and obvious, and developed a sort of mind link that we use to communicate with one another. Not like Legilimency… More like… What did you say the Muggle term was, Harry?"

Harry sighed. "Mental telepathy."

Draco smiled. "Right."

He turned to Hermione again. "That's what I was doing when you came bursting into the office."

"Oh."

Ron sighed. "Right, so, before you know it, Tom Riddle and his mass of followers will be banging down the doors to the Ministry. We can't stay here. He'll start the greatest war the Wizarding world has ever seen if he shows up here. And all he'll want is her."

Hermione shook her head. "Why? I still don't understand. I'm sure there are loads of talented wizards and witches out there who could threaten his position."

Draco laughed. She glared down at him, where he was still kneeling before her. "What?"

"Not many who are so skilled in the Dark Arts that they can perform a wandless Petrificus Totalus that freezes a whole fucking ocean."

Hermione's mouth made a small o before she decided that he was lying. "You're exaggerating. Besides, he didn't know that before."

Harry grimaced. "You didn't tell her about Lucius, Draco."

Draco gave Harry a look that spelled pure hatred. "Let's not discuss my father, Potter."

"But Draco-"

"No."

Harry sighed and threw up his hands in frustration. He opened his mouth to object again, but Hermione beat him to the chase. "What about Lucius, Draco?"

When he failed to respond, she grabbed him roughly by his shirt collar, pulling him up to meet her face and positioning his body awkwardly between her legs.

"What does your father want with me?"

Draco swallowed. "My father…"

He took a deep breath. "Do you remember all those things you said about him sizing you up? And what you told me about the night when I came back from Surrey and you two were drinking Scotch together?"

She nodded, blushing a little at the memory and loosened her grip on his shirt. "Lucius… There's something you don't know about him. He's… He's a Seer. But not in the sense that Sibyll Trelawney is one. He has visions, and they come true. Do you really think that Voldemort was out to get Potter purely on the word of that crackpot Trelawney? No. There were other Seers that predicted it, and my father was one. In you…"

Draco paused and looked down, focusing his gaze on Hermione's lap. Hermione shifted her weight. She was getting uncomfortable in the awkward pose, but she held on all the same.

"Shortly after I broke the curse on Harry, Lucius saw a vision of the final Great War between Dark and Light. He saw Voldemort, but in a different form. I can only assume now that this is Tom. He also saw you. You, who were neither Dark nor Light, yet possessed great capabilities in each. You came to end the prejudice in the Dark and the absolutism in the Light. You united the two sides, combining the power of the Dark and the morals of the Light, until there was no longer such thing as sides, and you came to rule them all. Voldemort saw this as a possible advantage. He, of course, assumed that he would be able to control you, to make you his own. Tom on the other hand…"

Hermione snorted. "That's ridiculous. That's one of the most ridiculous, far-fetched, overly dramatic things I've ever heard. Surely no one took him seriously."

The three men stared at her, as if they couldn't understand her disbelief.

"Look, it makes no sense anyway. What makes the Dark Arts bad is their power. The Dark Arts give men powers that only gods should possess, and that does nothing but conflict with morals. How would you possibly have the powers and still the morals?"

Draco frowned. "I didn't say anything about eliminating evil. All I'm saying is that the power would be tempered by… well… conscience."

Hermione rolled her eyes and gently slid her chair back, pulling away from Draco and standing up.

"Look, this is ridiculous. Let's get out of here before Tom comes breaking the door down and try to figure out how to stop him from being such an imbecile… or just how to kill him."

After adding the last part under her breath, she turned, walked briskly towards the door, and paused. "Draco…"

She turned around and found him watching her expectantly. "What happened to your father? Is he working for Tom?"

Draco frowned and glanced at the floor. "I haven't seen my father in years, Hermione."

She watched him, questioningly, but he failed to elaborate. With a shrug, she turned back to the door. Harry joined her.

"Shall we go, then?"

"Where?"

Hermione glanced between Harry and Ron, reflecting the latter's questioning stare. Harry smiled.

"Why, the only place we can go. The safest place we could be. We're going back to Hogwarts."

Draco rolled his eyes in a pretense of irritation, but stepped forward just the same, taking Hermione's hand in his. She looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes. Harry raised his eyebrows and Ron grinned.

"Hermione, if I know what love is, it is because of you."

She blushed and rolled her eyes in an attempt to hide her appreciative smile. After a quick squeeze, she withdrew her hand from his, waved her wand, and with a small "pop", she was gone. Draco sighed and Ron and Harry gave appreciative laughter. Draco turned to face them.

"She's really insufferable, you know? I don't know how you two put up with her for so long. Spectacularly awful. Just bothers the hell out of me, that girl does."

Ron smiled, took a deep breath, and Apparated after her, and Harry was soon to follow. With a deep sigh, Draco turned around, took one last look at the Minister's desk, and raised his wand.

He was going back to Hogwarts, the closest he'd ever gotten to truly having a home. He was going back with the love of his life. There was going to be bloodshed, and probably more dark magic than he'd ever seen, but this time…

This time Draco was on the right side.

"You're searching, Joe, for things that don't exist; I mean beginnings. Ends and beginnings -- there are no such things. There are only middles."

Robert Frost

****

Credit for the quote "if I know what love is, it is because of you." belongs to Herman Hesse.

I have considered many ways in which this story could continue, through different fics. I have perused the option of a companion fic detailing Ginny's descent into darkness. I've thought about focusing on Draco during Hermione's ten year absence, to better explain how he ended up on the side of good (although, in a rosy sweet view, I'm sure you could blame love itself). I've of course considered a simple follow up to this story, detailing the fight against Tom and Ginny.

But at the moment, the saga will end here. Please feel free to contact me (email, IM, or through review). Thank you so much for reading.