Hermione looked at her tear-streaked face in the mirror. It seemed she hadn't stopped crying since that day. She was wearing Gryffindor robes and a certain ring on a gold chain around her neck. She tried to wipe her tears away, but it was pointless, as they kept coming back, smearing her mascara, making it run down her cheeks. She gave up. He shouldn't be forgotten. She headed down to the GREAT Hall to make her farewell speech.
She was sitting slightly apart from her friends. They all had someone. And Hermione didn't want someone. She wanted him. Dumbledore was standing at the front.
"Tonight," he said. "Is a glorious night for you. Because tonight you enter the world as fully certified witches and wizards. It seems like just yesterday I was seeing your young faces for the first time. As I recall, you were all much smaller then." He chuckled. "In these last seven years, you have all grown and flourished in your teaching. You will pursue different courses, and I hope you will remain in contact with the friends you have made in and out of your houses. So without further ado, I give you your Head Girl, Hermione Granger." There was thunderous applause. Not just from the Gryffies, but also the Hufflepuffs, the Ravenclaws, and even the Slytherins, who had come to tolerate her through Draco.
"We have all gone through a lot together, in these past seven years. From Quidditch games to battling evil." She scanned the crowd, fixing her eyes on every face, one at a time, memorizing them. "It is a shame that I should stand here tonight, delivering this speech alone. Draco Malfoy, the Head Boy, should be standing here next to me, graduating right beside the rest of us. His death was a result of the Dark Times. In seven years, much has happened. I look at you all now, and see faces missing that were with us our first year. Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, and Gryffindors are absent from our midst. Fourteen in all," Hermione choked back a small sob. "Many were my friends, and I miss them dearly. And for those who were not, I mourn not knowing them.
"But I can say, that light times are ahead. The Death Eaters have been sent to Azkaban, where they can not cause any more pain to us. Who has lost a loved one, a friend, or even an acquaintance to this era?" hands went up, and Hermione scanned the crowd. "I see not one person who hasn't been scarred by this tragedy.
"Our Houses have become our family. Our support system. Our brothers and sisters. When you graduate tonight, you may ask yourself what the bloody hell you're going to do without them." Hermione wiped her tears off of her cheeks.
"This is something Draco and I were working on all year." She held up a hand-held mirror. Harry's jaw dropped. "We made one for every person in this room. Just whisper the name of the person you wish to see, and you will appear on their end of the mirror, and they will appear in yours. It's like having a face-to-face conversation without having to be in the same room as the person. And if the person you wish to see is… no longer with us, the mirror will show you a vision of them as you remember them. So we will not forget."
Hermione looked at the faces in the GREAT Hall. They were her friends, her family, her comrades. Ron, her brother through all of their adventures, who was so protective of both her and Ginny, who was so in love with Luna. Ginny, the one scarred by her time in the Chamber, the only one who could successfully keep a leash on Seamus. Blaise, who took that life-threatening journey with her and together killed Voldemort, who could put Draco in his place, who looked at Harry with such adoration. Harry, The Boy Who Lived, who was the cause of so many of her adventures, the ones she at first resented, her solid friend, the green-eyed boy who was proposing to Blaise. Tonight.
"I wish you all luck and safety on your journeys. But remember your loony Head Girl when you're older, kay?" there was silence for a moment, then deafening applause as Hermione's words burned themselves into the hearts and souls of everyone there.
She looked up one last time with tear-filled eyes. There was a figure lounging in the back nonchalantly. Hermione's brow wrinkled in confusion. The entire Hall went quiet as the figure walked forward. The man stopped in front of Hermione and went down on one knee.
"Can you ever forgive me?"
The man had hair such a light brown that it was more of a dirty blonde. His skin was tanned, his arms corded with hard muscles. But his eyes were the exact same steel gray. Hermione threw herself at the man, flattening him, kissing him frantically.
"DRACO!" screamed Blaise, who ran to him, as he was now simply holding a crying Hermione. Blaise threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Since Hermione couldn't exactly speak, Blaise voiced what she knew the girl wanted to say. "WHERE THE BLOODY FUCKING HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!"
"Well," he said calmly. "First, I was at my house, then I was at the Ministry, then I was at Saint Mungo's, then I was in the W.P.P."
"Wizarding Protection Program?" asked Harry.
"Why the hell were you in Saint Mungo's to begin with?" Blaise asked, a little more reasonably than before.
"Well, my estate really was broken into, so I had to go home to sort everything out. My mother was hysterical. I figured it was as good a time as any to turn myself in to the Ministry, and I was on my way back here when some nut attacked me for being, you know. So the Ministry figured I might as well use that to fake my death. And I've been in the WPP for the last four months. Now you're all up to speed."
"Well," chirped Blaise. "At least now you get to graduate!"
"I am going to kill you Draco Malfoy," said Hermione. "If you don't kiss me right this freaking instant." He obeyed.