Hermione's POV

"I'm going to go call Ron and tell him the good news!" Hermione exclaimed as she ushered Harry to his room and placed fresh clothes on his bed for him to change into.

"It can wait, can't it?" Harry inquired.

"Of course not, he has to know the good news." Hermione beamed. "I'll be back in a few minutes, then we can talk. Ok?"

"Yea sure," Harry said, pulling off his threadbare shirt, revealing his rock hard abs.

Hermione stared, after all these years, Harry had still managed to keep himself so in shape. Her eyes started welling up with tears again. What happened to him all these years? How much pain did he have to go through?

"You alright there?" Harry came over and put his arm around her shoulder.

Hermione wiped her eyes and forced a smile. "Yea, I'll be back," She said before she walked out of the door, leaving Harry standing there.

"Hello, may I speak to Mr. Ron Weasley, please?" Hermione said to the receptionist, whose head was floating in the fireplace.

"Certainly Miss, and may I inquire who is asking for him?" The receptionist smiled perfunctorily.

"Um, just tell him its Hermione, and tell him it is very important."

" Sure, no problem, please wait." A mini orchestra, floating in the fireplace and playing dull songs, replaced the receptionist's head.

"He-hello? Is this thing on, Nancy?" Ron's head popped up in the fireplace.

"Ron? It's me, Hermione!"

"Herm—wow! Look at you, long time no see, eh? How are you doing?"

"Good, how bout you?"

Ron sighed, "It's been busy around here, close to 1,000 orders of Weasley's Wizard Watch everyday. I've been working nonstop for hours!"

Hermione looked closely at Ron. He was no longer that carefree young boy that had left Hogwarts to study abroad with his father, but instead a sophisticated businessman. She hadn't seen him in years, but she had heard that he had gotten married, and was now happily settled in the wizarding world with a booming business and a thriving family. "Listen, could you come over to my mom's house right now? I have someone you have to meet."

"Uh, sure, is everything okay?" Ron looked worried.

"Uh huh, I just have to tell you something in person." Hermione smiled.

"Hold on," He turned around and yelled. "NANCY, CANCEL ALL MY APPOINTMENTS TODAY, I HAVE SOME PERSONAL BUSINESSES TO ATTEND TO. Hold on Hermione, I'll be right there. Bye! NANCY, HOW DO I TURN THIS BLOODY THING OFF?"

Hermione laughed as she put out the fire in the fireplace. A second later, Ron was standing in the kitchen, dressed in a fancy robe, with an anxious look on his face.

"Please have a seat. Would you like something to drink?" Hermione asked.

"No, no thanks." Ron pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Well, Ron, Harry's back." Hermione said gravely.

Ron swept a hand through his tousled hair, breathing deeply. "Hermione, please, don't do this to me. We both know that Harry isn't coming back."

"NO, he is back, I swear."

"This is ridiculous. Is this some kind of sick joke, Hermione? You know how much Harry meant to me. He was almost like a brother. Seriously, don't play these kind o—." Ron stared right over Hermione. He sat unblinking as if he had seen a ghost, and if he blinked, it would fade away.

Hermione turned around, sure that Ron had already seen Harry. She stood up and helped Harry over to the dining room table. Ron's face turned white, but he still sat unmoved, except for one hand, which reached over the table and prodded Harry's arm. He blinked, letting loose all the tears he had kept in for Harry.

"Bloody hell, it is you, Harry. It's really you." He grabbed Harry's hand in a warm clasp. "Welcome back." Ron added, without ever taking his eyes off of Harry's face.

"So, Harry, what happened, where have you been all these years?" Ron, always curious, questioned.

"Ro—" Hermione's eyes shot daggers at Ron, but Harry's firm touch on her forearm stopped her.

Harry's POV

"It's alright Hermione, I suppose you and Ron deserve to hear the truth." Harry began.

[Harry telling his story]

"Twenty years ago, I went to the Castle de Vuelta to free Malfoy from Voldemort's confines. We arrived with more than two hundred aurors, but I can't say we—they left with more than one fourth of the original number. That day, many aurors lost their lives as they battled the Death Eaters that awaited them. I was lucky, my only mission was to free Malfoy from the dungeon and defeat Voldemort. At that time, I felt invincible, I had defeated him six other times before, what was one more victory? With Malfoy's help, we were so close to defeating him. But then the 'earthquake' disrupted everything. The castle started sinking quickly and all the remaining aurors and the Death Eaters were in a mad dash to get out. After helping out a wounded auror, there was only time and space left for only one of us to escape. Malfoy, at first, begged me to leave him, but I told him that Hermione need hi—" Harry broke off, choking on his tears. "I asked him to tell Hermione that I would love her forever, and I made him promise to take care of her. With that, I went back to Voldemort's chambers to finish him off. With my last burst of magic, I was able to cast the Aveda Kedavera spell on him—I finished him off, but the immense amount of energy required caused me to pass out. When I woke up, I desperately started searching for a way to get out, but the layers of magic surrounding the castle was impenetratable. Then and there, I thought I was going to die, either by starvation, suffocation, infections, or some other unknown source. I thought, 'Voldemort was right, I am going to die here, and my body will rot here until my great great grandchildren dig my bones up.' For a while, I just sat there, waiting to die, but one day I woke up thinking, 'I am the boy who lived, I am going to get out of this bloody castle.' For a week, I woke up every morning to explore the castle, trying to find a passageway that would possibly lead out of it. Finally, I stumbled upon a trapdoor that would once have led to the dungeon, now it was many layers further underground, and heavily protected with magic. The only way to get out would be to undo all the layers of magic. So for 20 years, I would wake up every morning, magic an abundant supply of oxygen to last me for twenty-four hours, and start undoing the magic. When I got hungry, I would magic some food or some water."

Hermione placed a glass of water in front of Harry. "Thanks." He took a giant gulp and started again. "I thought I was on a roll, I knew–probably-the first five spells, but after a while, they got harder and harder, and soon I was bloody tired and confused. I figured that I wouldn't be able to undo any more spells unless I researched. Remembering that I had crossed an old library during my exploration of the castle, I started making daily excursions there to research about the different types of spells. Some spells would take me months to remove, and a couple others took me years. It cost me twenty bloody long years and a wand to tear down the entire bulwark of spells. Now, here I am."

"So why could you just apparate out of the castle?" Ron asked.

"Voldemort is more careful than that. If he was to capture someone, they could just easily apparate out of the castle and escape." Hermione pointed out.

"Right, so he put an anti-apparating charm on the entire castle. You could only apparate from one room of the castle to another, but you couldn't apparate out of the castle." Harry added.

"So how'd you break your knee, Harry?" Hermione questioned.

"I think it was right before I cast the Aveda Kedavera curse, but I don't really remember. The pain was washed away by all the adrenaline and anxiety. All I do remember is waking up and feeling my knee throbbing like mad, and when I tried to stand up, I just fell back down. So basically, for the last 20 years, I've either had to drag myself around, or put a temporary healing spell on my bad knee. I never understood why it wasn't getting better until I was examined by the medi-wizards."

"Bloody, you ARE the bravest man I know."

Darn, anyone have an idea how I can end this story? If you do, please leave a note or something. I have serious writers block right now. I was gonna do it so that Harry polyjuices into Draco after he locks him away in a cell, because he wants to be with hermione so bad, but I figured that locking Draco in a cell is a little ridiculous. Cuz I mean, its DRACO we're talking about. And blahblahblah Harry gets Hermione pregnant, but she thinks DRACO did, so when the baby is born, he looks exactly like Harry. Si?