Chapter 13: Waking up

Having slept the best she'd ever slept in a year, Hermione almost didn't want to wake up. Her life was finally perfect. The house elves had been liberated (and now worked for payment of some kind), she was married to most gorgeous and thoughtful man, and she had everything she could dream of. Only her best friends were missing from the picture, though they were on her mind everyday.

"I think she's coming to."

Why are there people in my room? Hermione thought rolling over.

"Hermione! Wake up!" Another voice shouted.

"Ron, Shut up! Let her sleep!" the first voice whispered.

Ron? Hermione sat up and looked around her. Harry was sitting next to the bed, which was not her bed. "Harry?" she threw her arms around his neck. "I've missed you so much!"

Harry faked some choking noises, but hugged her back. "I've been here the whole time."

The whole time?

"So have I…" Ron muttered, "but do I ever get a hug? No! Do I ever get missed? No!"

"Oh get over here if you want a hug. I missed you too." She hugged them both a hundred times.

"Wow, Mione, You are never this… huggy… What happened?" Ron asked as he sat down on the bed.

Hermione explained waking up next to Malfoy remembering nothing after the duel and how he had tried to convince her they were married-

"Sounds like a bloody nightmare, that does," Ron commented scrunching up his face as if he'd eaten something horrid.

"Shut up, Ron, and let her finish telling us about the dream," Harry snapped.

Dream?

Hermione went on to tell about Ginny and the twins (Harry turned bright red at this point of the story) and how Ron had ended up with Luna (and Ron choked). But she ended the story before she got to the point when she had made up with Malfoy. They would have thought she was fantasizing, and if it had all been a dream then there was no point in telling that part.

"Least you never slept with Malfoy," Ron chuckled.

See?

"All right boys. It is time to let Ms. Granger rest." Madame Pomfrey said shooing the boys from the infirmary. "How are you feeling, Hermione, dear?" She asked while doing a few check up spells.

"All right I guess," Hermione answered with a shrug. "What happened?"

"You hit your head rather hard and when you came to me you were unconscious." The mediwitch straightened the covers. "You've been out for a week and a half."

"That's all? It felt like a year!" Hermione exclaimed.

"That may be, but I promise you that is all." The nurse started to leave. "Is there anything you need before I retire for the evening?"

"No, thanks."

"Good night then." And the lights went out.

It was all a dream then? The kindness, the kisses… the sex, was all a creatin of my subconscious? But it had felt so real! She lay down and pulled the covers up to her chin. If that was a dream… I want to dream it again. And with a sigh she closed her eyes and dozed off.

Hermione was awoken some time later by someone pounding on the infirmary door. The clicking of heals soon followed.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing out of bed at this hour?" Madame Pomfrey shrieked, noticeably upset about being woken up in the middle of the night.

There was some mumbling between her and whoever was at the door and then the other person left.

"No doubt you are awake Miss Granger. You have a delivery on the night stand by your bed." And then she went back to bed.

Curious as to who had brought her a gift and what it was she rolled over. There beside her bed was a vase with a single white lily and a package wrapped in green paper. Inside was Hermione's favorite children's story, The Velveteen Rabbit. An inscription was found on the inside cover:

"I'm sorry

Anonymous"

But she knew whom it was from right away by the handwriting. After making a mental note to thank the person later, Hermione rolled over and fell back to sleep.

"Mudblood!"

"Rat Bastard!"

"Bitch!"

"Prick!"

"Cock sucker!" Malfoy had a smug look on his face.

Hermione only smiled. "I'm good at that actually."

Everyone in the room nearly choked.

Before draco could coem up with an adequate comback, Professor Snape entered the room, thus ending the feud for the time being. This was the last day of classes at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and, of course, to "celebrate" the day Snape had prepared a pop potions final.

After what seemed lijke eternity to everyone except Hermione (who was absolutely exstatic about the test!), Snape dismissed the class. "Granger. Malfoy." He said keeping them from leaving. Once everyone was gone he continued. "I believe you two have some issues to discuss before they get out of hand." And he left the room (A/n: Jade, I wrote this and thought of that one story where everyone was awlays leaving the room. lol...)

"Huh?" Draco looked confused.

"Thank you." Hermione said.

"He's out of the room, Mudblood, he can't hear you."

"I was talking to you, dipshit." Hermione was a bit upset that she was giving appreciation and he wasn't being nice enough to accept it. At this moment she actually wished that he was the Draco from her dream, and not the one before her now.

"What for?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well I know you sent the flower and the book."

"Again, I have no clue what you are talking about Granger."

Maybe it hadn't been him after all. Perhaps it had been Harry or Ron, or one of the other Gryffindor kids. Of course the real Draco...er... Malfoy would never have broughten me gifts.

"Perhaps I was mistaken." Hermione said standing up. "Good day Malfoy."

She shut the door behind her as she left since Malfoy had made no move to leave. How could I have been so stupid as to think there was really any kindness in him at all. Even in my dream, I had been right in my dream not to trust him. She sighed. The only difference is my mind had manipulated him in the dream to be what I wanted. Oh well, off to Transfiguration.

"Hermione! Wait!"

She turned around to see Malfoy standing in the hallway. He jogged up to her. "I did bring you the lily and the book. I felt bad about cheating to win, and even worse when you didn't wake up right away." he stopped and changed his attitude. "But that doesn't change anything. You're still a worthless Mudblood."

She smiled and gave him a quick kiss. "And you're still an ugly rat bastard."

&&&&

A/n: ok well thats the end of it. Im glad you all enjoyed it so much and continued to stay alert for updates to the story though it had taken me forever to update.

Meesa: I know it has been hard enough to find time to write out the chapters let alone to read and respond to teh reviews recently. Most of the time I'm typing over at my boyfriends house (and btw... he's not a fan of fanfiction... yet... just wait i'll get him hooked once him and i are moved in together) But yeah, its been crazy... And i have to say... I'd be disappointed if you truly thought i had forgotten about you. Cuz i havent. I hope you liked the way it had ended... I thought it was all right. I may rewrite parts of it later when I dont have to worry about school.

Sugar n Spice 522: I am kinda gonna miss writing this story, But it definately makes me happy knowing you liked it that much.

RavenDeath7: Yea, finally wrote more... and finished it up too... It was a bit sad about Draco, but if he hadn't looked so sad then Hermione would never have told him how she felt... so it all worked out in the end... of her dream anyway...

Blue ice: yeah, she remembered... sorta as you read in this chapter it was all a dream, but was her dream so off...

To everyone I may have forgotten: Thanks for reading everyone. Now I will work on either Fallen Angel or The Wolf Within. I want to have these stories done by the end of the year, but with school and moving out next month, Im not sure if i will even have a computer at that point in time. So, stay tuned for my updates on the other two stories.