Epilogue

By Jenni

One year later…

Hermione and Draco stood side by side, greeting their guests and friends as they fell past one by one as they left the chapel. The day was hot and the guests were numerous, although neither Draco nor Hermione knew more than a handful. The whole Ministry had been invited, it seemed, upon Narcissa Malfoy's insistence. It was no secret that she sought to make the Malfoy name respectable again at any cost.

Most shook Draco's hand with feigned politeness, secretly hating his guts for having the nerve to be cleared for his theft of the Blossom Gem (Harry had arranged that). Others offered enthusiastic handshakes and wished the young couple luck on their endeavors, pleased to witness the genuine love between an unlikely pair.

Hermione smiled for all of them, eagerly playing the role of a young society wife. Behind the façade, however, she was just simple Hermione, who had argued with her mother-in-law over the price of roses, the guest list, the food at the reception.

In less than a year she had lost that sense of desperate, dangerous love for Draco that had sustained her through the war and past its end. It had evolved into something tamer, something possibly mundane. She did not value it less because it had grown comfortable nor did she long for the uncertainty of the past. But over the months since her engagement, Hermione had found herself remembering more and more that man in the dark corners of her mind, that desperate and feral creature that had claimed to be her love.

It was strange that she had spent so much time trying to prove that the man from the Rememberall was not Draco, only to devote herself in the present to proving that he was. Hermione had garnered only the barest of facts about him: that he had been a Death Eater; that he had loved her; that he had been Draco. This was not enough to bring her understanding, however.

She researched every facet of the Orpheus Curse, doing so in the early hours of the morning so her fiancé would not catch her. Hermione felt too uneasy to question him herself, for she had not told him the details of what she had learned from the Rememberall. She didn't want Draco to think about a life where he had not made the choices he had made and where he had not been a good man. Nor did she want to tell him that she had not loved that person, the one he could have become.

When her books failed to supply the necessary information, Hermione visited a gypsy, who told her of way to change one's destiny. Only the gypsy witches knew of the proper incantation, and it was rare for them to grant a request for one. Furthermore, the spell was dangerous and often unfair to those whose lives are altered forever. They would perform it only on the condition that the death of the person desiring the spell would reset all things as they had been before.

Hermione did not understand how such a spell was possible. She even visited a Muggle physicist, who spoke to her of parallel universes, but she had no revelation after leaving his office. Confusion was the only thing she felt. How was it possible for a man to become so drastically different? And yet, that Draco had loved her… When had it happened? Had she truly loved him back?

And how had Draco managed to give her to keep the Rememberall, the memories from which now haunted her every waking hour? Hermione wondered if she would ever know.

A hand seized hers, followed by a friendly hug. Shaking herself from her reverie, Hermione found herself face to face with Harry. He was smiling, but underneath it Hermione could detect his pain.

"Congratulations," he said, but Hermione really knew he meant, I love you.

"Thank you," she replied, pulling away so he could not kiss her cheek. Hermione remembered too well what it was like to kiss him. And she couldn't help but wonder, "What if?"

Harry passed by her without complaint and shook Draco's hand.

Hermione watched him move on and suddenly the revelation that had escaped her flashed through her mind. The Draco who was her husband and the Draco who had been her enemy were as different as day from night, save for one thing: their desire to be good.

It didn't matter how the Draco of the Rememberall had done the things he had done. It only mattered that he had desired to do good and had succeeded in the end. He had loved her in his abusive, possessive way, a way of love completely different from the reverent, gentle love of the Draco who was her husband.

But he had wanted to be good, for her sake.

Just as her Draco, the present Draco, had wanted to be good for his.

And with this desire in mind, they could move mountains. They could fulfill any promise.

But Harry…? Hermione saw Harry walk down the steps to join Ron and the rest of the Weasley family. He was sad and trying to hide it, but his melancholy was nothing to what it would be if he knew how close he had come to winning Hermione's heart.

And as her husband reached down to tenderly take her hand in his, Hermione realized that Harry would never know.