"They've found Kaitlyn."

Ron stood up quickly. "Where? Merlin's sake where IS SHE? Where's my daughter?"

Lupin grabbed Ron's shoulder firmly. "Ron, please, calm down."

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? My daughter could be in danger! She could be dying! Where is she? I want to see her!"

Harry then appeared in the fireplace. He stepped out and stood right next to Ron. He looked completely shaken. "Ron, Ron, she's all right."

Ron turned around and grabbed Harry tightly. "Harry… where is she? Where… Harry…"

"Where's Hermione?"

"She's with Ginny. I need to see Kaitlyn."

"Come on," Harry whispered, taking his friend into the Hospital Wing. Harry led him over to Kaitlyn's bed. "I'll send Hermione out," he whispered, rushing to his wife's aid.

Ron opened the posters surrounding his daughter's bed. She was not sleeping.

"Kate?" he whispered.

Her head shot up. She frowned. "Dad?" she called. "Dad… is that you?"

"Yes, Katie," he said, moving toward her. "It's me. I love you."

"DAD! DAD!" she cried, kicking the blankets off of her legs and launching herself at Ron, arms wide open.

"Kate!" he grabbed her and pulled her into his embrace. He kissed her head, her cheeks, smoothed her hair, and sobbed frantically. "Kate, Kate, oh… you had me so scared."

"Dad… I had to! I had to! Draco took him and was keeping him prisoner just for being with me… He wasn't happy! He was completely miserable! I had to! I had to!" she sobbed. She was gripping him tightly, drenching the front of his robes. "I'm so sorry, Dad, I love you."

Hermione appeared inside the posters, anxious and panicking. "Oh dear Lord, Kaitlyn!" She ran toward her daughter and her husband, cradling them both in her embrace. "What were you thinking, Kaitlyn? What possessed you to do such a thing?"

Kaitlyn only sobbed harder. Ron looked up at Hermione, smiling lovingly. He reached over, moving hair off of Hermione's face. "Love, Hermione. She did it for love."

"I'm afraid he's been severely wounded, and he'll remain comatose for several hours," Madam Pomfrey reported to Ron and Hermione. "I've had quite a bit of trouble getting a hold of his father, however."

Hermione looked over her shoulder at her daughter. "Yes, yes. When will Kaitlyn be able to see him?"

Ron smiled encouragingly at his wife. Madam Pomfrey sighed heavily. "Whenever she feels like visiting him," she said before turning and walking out of the room.

Harry emerged from a closed room in the back of the Hospital Wing. "I wish it wasn't so grim up here. How's Kaitlyn?"

"She's all right. She's pretty calm at the moment. She wanted to see Dameon, but we didn't want her up. How's Ginny?"

Harry beamed widely. "She's great. She's got Cedric right now and they're both doing wonderfully."

Kaitlyn stirred in her bed. Ron looked over his shoulder, then back at his two oldest friends in the world. "Let's visit with her. Give Kaitlyn a few minutes without her family breathing down her neck."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the room to see Ginny. Kaitlyn opened her eyes and smiled weakly. Of course, she'd been awake a good portion of the time, listening. She was so overwhelmed by the complete change her father had taken in regards to Dameon. He just seemed to understand.

Madam Pomfrey had told her to stay in bed for the rest of the night, but she couldn't. She had to see Dameon. She had to be near him when he woke up.

She pulled the covers off of her legs and hopped quietly onto the cold, hard floor. She stepped outside of the poster hangings and crept surreptitiously to the bed next to hers. Looking around one more time, Kaitlyn poked her head in. Dameon was asleep. She sat on the chair next to his bed and took his cold, lifeless hand in both of hers.

"Dameon," she whispered, watching his chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm. At least he was breathing all right.

"I suppose we were wrong," she told him. "My mother and father seem to understand us. It seems so unfair, you know? I really wish your father remembered the feeling of being in love. Maybe then he'd overlook the fact that I'm a Weasley and that he and my father hate each other…"

Dameon stirred. His eyelids fluttered once or twice and Kaitlyn felt her breath catch. He was supposed to be asleep for the next two or three hours. He couldn't be waking up yet.

It was too much to hope for. He was going to be unconscious for a long time, after having fought off the Cruciatus Curse. His face was badly bruised and he was a sickly, pallid color. He didn't look like the Dameon she knew, the Dameon she had fallen in love with. He looked like a different person now. It was the mark of someone who had seen far too much for such a young age. It reminded her a great deal of her uncle.

"I wish your father knew, Dameon. Maybe then he'd understand. When you're in love with someone so much, it doesn't matter what family they're from, what type of blood they have. All that matters is you're in love."

Again, Dameon stirred and made a subtle noise. Kaitlyn sighed, resting her head next to his on the bed. She wanted him to wake up more than anything.

The door to the infirmary burst open and a very irate man walked in. Madam Pomfrey rushed in to see what the racket was. She narrowed her eyes at the intruder.

"Master Malfoy, if you would please quiet down!"

He only ignored her.

Kaitlyn's head snapped up when she heard Madam Pomfrey. Draco was here? There was no telling what he would say or do pertaining to her. She gripped Dameon's hand tightly in her own. Thankfully her parents had just emerged from the room where Harry and Ginny were.

The posters by the bed flew open and the glare from Draco's eyes penetrated Kaitlyn's body. He was searching her out, trying to figure out her motives. He couldn't see them.

"It was you, wasn't it, you sick filthy Mudblood?"

"Malfoy, you get away from my daughter." Ron's voice seemed to startle all of them. Draco looked up, his malicious eyes peering hatefully at both Ron and Hermione.

"It's concerning my son, Weasley. I have every right to be angry."

"But not to insult my daughter," Ron spat angrily. "You have no business speaking to her in such a manner."

"Your… daughter… trespassed on my estate, broke into my home, damaged private property and kidnapped my son."

"Kidnapped!" Kaitlyn screamed. "You were holding him prisoner! YOU were the one who kidnapped him! He didn't want to be there with you, he wanted to be with me. At least I love him."

Draco sneered. "Silly girl, you don't even know what love is."

"And you do, Draco?" Hermione whispered. Draco's eyes found Hermione's and his face faltered a bit. It looked as if he was almost nostalgic.

"What does it matter to you, Mudblood?"

Ron jumped up right away, wand out and pointed straight between Draco's eyes. "First, you say it to my daughter, then to my wife. Trying to get yourself killed, Malfoy? You know I will do it. I'm not afraid to."

Kaitlyn looked frightened as she clutched Dameon's hand tightly. His fingers wiggled in hers. She didn't look away from the scene that was taking place before her.

"The point is, Weasley, your daughter trespassed on my private property and that is a criminal offense. I could have you thrown in Azkaban for the rest of your days with the power I hold," Draco threatened.

"What power?" Ron spat. "Your steadily decreasing power? The fact is, Malfoy, your father died and left you nothing but a plethora of bad debts hidden by a good name. What power you had is now gone. No one is going to believe that my daughter kidnapped your son. They know me as a hard-working Ministry official, and you're a poor useless son of a Death Eater. Your name will get you nowhere anymore."

Draco's reserve was shattered. He turned his eyes on Kaitlyn once again and sneered. "As soon as he wakes, he's coming home with me."

"Not for a few days, Master Malfoy," Madam Pomfrey spoke up. She had returned to check on Dameon. "He's been subjected to the Cruciatus Curse and he's been unconscious for almost four hours. He'll be staying here, where I can keep a good eye on him."

"He is NOT staying! I refuse to leave my son in such care!"

Madam Pomfrey's eye's blazed. "If you have a problem with the way I care for my patients, than perhaps you should take it up with Headmistress McGonagall."

Malfoy looked at the glaring faces around him. He looked at Madam Pomfrey, unwilling to relent. "He will stay in your care for no longer than it takes. After that, he is to be returned to me promptly."

"Why, Draco?" Hermione whispered. She was now sitting next to Kaitlyn. "Why does he have to stay with you? What does it matter that he and Kaitlyn want to be together? What have you to do with it?"

"I have everything to do with it," he replied arrogantly. "This is my son. This is my concern. Why are you defending this absurd relationship?"

"Don't you remember, Draco? Don't tell me you've forgotten already," Hermione said quietly.

Draco acted as if he hadn't understood her. "Remember what, exactly?"

"I can't believe you," she said, becoming offended. "You've forgotten about her."

"I don't know what you're talking about, so quit talking, Granger."

"Weasley. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, and I'm not going to stop talking until you admit that you've forgotten. What happened to Grace? Where did your love for her go when she went?"

Draco threw them all the dirtiest look he could manage, spun on his heel, and stalked out of the room. Ron and Hermione gave their daughter an encouraging look and followed Draco out from behind the posters.

"Don't walk away from us, Malfoy," Ron demanded.

"I have every right to walk away, Weasley. You are treading on very dangerous grounds. Grace is and was my personal business. I am not going to discuss her with people like you."

"Like who? A Weasley and a Mudblood?" Hermione asked. Ron's jaw dropped at the word his wife had used. However, she was not fazed at all. "What does all of that matter anymore, Draco? We're out of school, and we have been for nearly twenty years. You father, the one who instilled all of this in you… he's no longer around to govern your life. Why are you still insulting us?"

Draco couldn't look at them. He was biting his lip in frustration. "Does it matter? Of course it matters! You, Weasley, and Potter have been ruining my life ever since our first year at Hogwarts."

"And you haven't been ruining ours?" Ron shot back. "You've been insistent on making our lives hell. It's not like we did it on purpose."

"Besides, that was twenty years ago, and it's all over," Hermione pointed out. "We can't change the past, but we can change the present. Don't you want to give your son the choices you never had? Don't you want him to be able to make up his own mind about his life instead of having you do it for him?" she asked.

Draco could think of nothing to say to that. He was struck silent.

"Have you ever heard of a British Muggle writer named William Shakespeare, Draco?"

He finally gazed over as if to say, 'Are you serious?'

"He wrote a play once, Draco. It was called Romeo and Juliet. It's a romance. A tragedy."

"What does this have to do with my son?"

"Everything," Hermione stressed. Ron was staring at her in interest. He'd never asked about the plot of Romeo and Juliet, no matter how many times he'd seen her read it. "It has everything to do with the story."

"Are you going to explain it to me or are you just going to taunt me? I really don have time for this, Granger."

"Weasley," she corrected again. "The story is about two families, the Montagues and the Capulets. However, they have been feuding for some centuries."

"Why?" Draco asked. The story, after all, did sound familiar.

"Well, they never say. All it says is they are feuding and have been foes for a very long time. At any rate, members of their family duel in the street and get into trouble with the law frequently. They've been warned by the Prince of the city for it because their fights are getting very much out of hand."

"And?" Ron spoke up.

Hermione smiled at him, taking his hand in hers. She loved it when he expressed interest. "The Capulets throw a masquerade ball, where their daughter Juliet will meet the charming Paris, who wants to marry her. Romeo, the only son from the Montague family, goes to the ball with his cousins because he hears the woman he is currently in love with is there. However, upon seeing Juliet, he thinks her the most beautiful woman in the world and instantly falls in love with her," Hermione explained.

"So? Where does the part come when their families realize it's a stupid idea for them to be in love?" Draco asked, irritated.

"It doesn't," she said, her tone low and cautious. "The point is, they fall madly in love with each other, get married in secret, and have to hide their love from their families. That's when Romeo kills Juliet's cousin and is banished from the city of Verona."

"Verona? That's not in England," Ron butted in.

Hermione squeezed his hand and continued. "Juliet becomes betrothed to Paris…"

"HOW?" Ron screamed.

Hermione gave him an admonishing look. "Her parents do it."

"Don't they know about Romeo?" Draco asked quietly.

Hermione, to say the least, was a little shocked. Draco was actually paying attention? "Of course they don't. They couldn't tell their families. Anyway, Juliet has been told by her father that he will disown her if she doesn't marry Paris, so she's stuck. She goes to the Friar who married Romeo and her and asks for help. He gives her a potion which will make her appear to be dead for a few days, then when she wakes up, she'll leave to go find Romeo."

"You're making this up," Draco muttered under his breath.

"Of course I'm not! It wouldn't hurt for you to read this story, Draco," she declared. "Anyway, the Friar sends word to Romeo about what is to happen but he never gets the message." Ron gulped. "So he finds out that Juliet is dead, goes back to Verona, lays next to her on her death bed and drinks a vial of poison. Juliet wakes up just in time to watch him die and then stabs herself with a dagger."

The response was instantaneous. Both Ron and Draco were fit to kill. Hermione only looked smug. "You can't tell me this isn't like Romeo and Juliet. My daughter knows the story. It's one of her favorites."

Draco rolled his eyes. "It's complete fiction."

Hermione folded her arms defiantly across her chest. "Is it, Draco? We stand here right now, staring spitefully at each other, speaking hateful words, but both of our children are in there, completely crazy about each other. Is that fiction?"

No one said anything for a long time. Hermione, stepping closer to Ron, spoke softly, "I don't think any of us want that to happen to our children. The worst we can do is try and tear them apart."

Draco bit his lip again, looking away angrily. He was having a lot of trouble believing everything. He looked malevolently over at Dameon's bed.