ANJust an epilogue to go. It's all so scary. This is not a full length chapter either, though the end bit has just been added. It has disturbed me the amount of you who wish to see Hermione go with Draco. Albeit they're destined but he has raped, brutally tortured and murdered not just the bad guys. But hey, go forth and ponder. Read on my friends and tell me what you think at the end!

Chapter Nineteen

Time

What would you do? What would anyone do?

Love...

"You still haven't looked at those accursed Snow Faerie's white flower yet have you? Granger! What's happened to you? You use to look everything up in a fucking book! Now... I've been bugging you about this for ages. And you still haven't looked them up!" He sounded so annoyed that Hermione jumped back from him slightly. He didn't seem to notice and nor was his anger directed at her.

"How... Oh I don't know. Draco, you are my dark knight. You are who I dream about, you are who I feel the deepest feelings I have ever felt about. But... we could never be normal. I'm not sure we could ever live together." Hermione commented quietly to the sand.

"And you think you could live with Nott? I have. For seven years! He snores. He looks worse than Crabbe after going anywhere near water. He never says anything. He's got the personality of a Hufflepuff!" Draco ranted now directing his anger at her. The wind whipped up around them and dark clouds blackened the skies.

The beach of it's soft colours suddenly seemed drained of life. No birds circled the cliffs, no crabs walked the shores. "But he fights for us Draco. He knows me. And I feel safe with him." The wind almost battered her off the rock she sat on. It was then for the first time Hermione realised Draco Malfoy controlled the weather. But she doubted he realised.

"And who do I fight for! I gave my life for you and yours Hermione! My life!" He wasn't crying. He didn't look like he could cry, for he was in such a state he should have been. "And I was willing to forgo eternal peace to be with you."

"I... I love..." Hermione was crying. Big big tears of pain, conflict and love. She still didn't know. And perhaps she would never know. "I.." She hiccuped and they flew together like oppositely charged magnets. Not very romantic, but unstoppable.

They stayed there. Eternity in a second, the best and the worst, hope fading like the last of Spring. And Draco knew then. "It's too late though isn't it Hermione. If I had wanted you I should have... Never done what I did. You are my only regret my Hermione." He told her hair softly. His breath was warm. His breath was warm. Love can defy death, but not Hermione. It was impossible. "If there is an afterlife... I'll be waiting. I swear upon all the stars in the heavens. I'll even let that fool raise my daughter. I... This is the end of us." And it was. They did not know why. Draco felt sure it was the same compulsion that had made him write those names on the board. It was telling him he had to do what he was meant to. It meant that he could stay for time, but he would be less and less like himself. He had stayed too long already, he longed for the peace and eventually he would blame her for taking it away from him. She had kept him there though. And he had been alive. So alive. For her. And for his revenge.

They broke away, Draco magically making her appearance correct, as though she had never had an outpouring of pain on a beach. He took her palm and kissed it gently, softly. "When your time comes Hermione, we will be together again. I know. I know." He smiled, but it turned into a contorted face of grave pain and he turned away from her. "Mercury. Go to your mother. And love her forever." He patted the girl's head as he passed by her. She obeyed without question.

And Malfoy walked to Nott who stood staring at where the couple had been standing. He stared with hatred and malice which Malfoy had never seen on Nott before. "Don't blame her," He told Nott, "women can't help themselves around me." Nott sneered a very Malfoyish sneer.

"Go back to your grave, dead boy." Very unsophisticated for the likes of Theodore Nott.

"I'm here to be nice to you Nott." Draco wanted to add a pun on his surname at the end of that but he'd really worn through all the ones he could think of by fourth year and repeating old material was quite bad form. Nott looked even more suspicious than he had a minute ago. "I'm giving you my family. Treat them well, or I'll be back for you." Nott looked like he'd just seen an aeroplane. "No need to thank me." Malfoy smirked. "I know you've always wanted what I've had. I've just been so gifted."

"Treat Mercury with the utmost respect. She is the last of the greatest line." Malfoy said appraising his daughter with a sceptical eye.

"Even though she's a halfblood." Nott finally managed his wits about him enough for a rebuke. However it seemed unprofitable for Malfoy plain ignored him. It began to rain, cold harsh rain, but only slowly.

"And don't fuck Hermione. She's mine." Malfoy said this. Though he didn't believe that Hermione and Nott would not carry on a couple's relationship after his second death, he wanted to try and stop it. Hopefully Nott would die quite quickly. Auror's tended too but one could only hope that with the final battle someone might do him a favour. Nott looked about as sceptical about this as Malfoy, so Draco gave up and sniffed. "I think that's about it." He looked about him as if searching for inspiration. "You've got a fucking ugly house. And it's tiny."

"Why Malfoy? I hope it's not because Hermione is a mudblood." Theodore asked his gaze on Hermione and Mercury who stood together staring at them. It looked as if Mercury was in tears. So Malfoy really was leaving... dying.

"No. It's because she's Hermione." Draco said roughly. And then "SNOW FAERIES!" He shouted over to the girls. They were too far away to see any expression as a result of this shouting. It meant nothing to Nott. "And it's because even I dream occasionally Nott. But when I do they tend to be things which forget other people."

"It's called being an egotistical little fuck."

"Don't push me." Draco replied watching his Hermione and Mercury staring at them. "I'm going." He couldn't stand it. All this waiting. He could not say goodbye for a third time.

"Where? I thought you were dying?" Nott asked a little more than surprised. He expected Draco to romantically fade into nothing. Draco slapped Nott's head impatiently and froze Nott's muscles to stop retaliation.

"I am dying you little fuck. Just not yet. I'm going to kill my last person. In the most gruesome and horrible manner I can imagine. But don't tell Hermione." He added hastily turning his gaze from Hermione to the sky. It was blacker than the evening sky now and little slow droplets of rain ran down Nott's frozen face. Nott made sounds as if speaking but his lips muscles were frozen. Malfoy unfroze them, too rash to really contemplate the decision... Or he was just stalling the time when he had to take his last look at her.

"Your last person. You're going to kill your father?" He asked quietly. Draco punched his arm, making little effect against the frozen muscles.

"Don't be so fucking sensitive. I'm going to murder the piece of shit." Draco told him with a gleam of sadism in his eye. The gleam would have scared Nott had he not known that Draco would do nothing in front of Hermione. "Right. I'm going." He made no move. "Look out for her. No... Make her happy. But never forget, Nott, She's mine. And she always will be." Draco told Nott smirking like he had done when he first made a smile as a baby.

He took one last look at the angelic form of his Hermione and his daughter. And then he faded to the wind.

--

"Hermione." She looked up. Nott was towering above her, his face with a foreign look upon it. Perhaps it was concern. Their fate, an undeniable, inescapable fate was drawing nearer and nearer. Her hands were shaking and she repeated clasped and unclasped them.

He sat down beside her and took her hands. He rubbed his skin against hers, although his eyes were above her head. They were waiting in the house in the place at the time. Waiting, waiting, waiting. This was the end. It had to be. Could Harry really defeat a wizard so beyond his only capacity?

The Final Battle.

Lupin was staring at her. His eyes boring into the side of her head. He did not know she was with Nott. Bill was avoiding looking at her or Nott. Suddenly Nott's presence and touch were a comfort and she leaned into him. He almost smiled. "I think that the best option is for us to..."

"You're a fucking moron Granger."

"What did you call me?" Hermione asked sitting up from her slouched position on Nott's shoulder. He looked at her in surprise. In a wordless surprise. She swallowed and wondered if the battle was getting to her brain. She had sworn she had heard Malfoy's voice... in her head...

"I was suggesting that we should keep to the south..." Nott continued holding her slightly looser than he had before.

"Hermione..." There it was again. That voice... Sounded so comforting. Soft and gentle. Yet Malfoy-like.

Hermione sat up again. Her fingers tightened around Nott's hand and she shivered. "Sorry, go on. I've just got chills."

"It's probably best if we stick to..."

"I remember seeing you for the first time. Across Platform 9 ¾. You looked like a hedge." Yes it definitly sounded like Malfoy. Or rather had the blunt honest opinions of Malfoy. But she'd heard those words before. He'd spoken them to her when they had last met. Face to face... On the evening before he had died, 22nd October...

"And of course if the Death Eaters...""I've done terrible things Granger. Things you should spank me for." Then the eyes changed. Became serious. "And I feel them Granger. I've done terrible things." Was this just her memory? Was her stressed mind just reverting back to things... times of hope...

"But our forces should be able to overrun a short term attack..." She could feel Nott drawing back from her, his eyes staring at her... but... she listened to him, but never heard him.

"I want to turn Granger. It's the 22nd October. Tomorrow my life begins anew."

"And then the teletubbies should arrive to aid our attack..." Nott spoke quietly. By the lack of reaction to this statement he guessed that Hermione was miles away. Lupin, however let a small grin slide.

"You know you should at least try to look good. The hedge look is just not in fashion. Wasn't seven years ago, isn't now."

"And of course the Death Eaters will summon the almighty power of the singing hamsters..." Was she waiting at the final battle with Nott or was she standing at Hogwarts with Draco? She couldn't quite remember... It all seemed so... unreal...

"Granger." He pushed her hair back behind her ear. He looked so gentlemanly. He bit his lip, moisture reflecting in the pale moonlight. "I believe one day... We all have our sins Granger. And I would so much love to be yours."

"And they'll all go off into the rainbow sunrise..."

I'm coming for you sweetheart, darling, bastard. Malfoy had never said that to her but it was his voice... And it sounded like he was whispering in her ear.

Hermione stood up shreking slightly. Lupin outrighted stared at her, and the Order looked gob-smacked. She turned round to face the sitting Nott who finished his quiet story with..."Voldemort will resign evil doing and run a nursery for Orphans." The Order laughed hesitantly, Lupin chuckling and shaking his head.

"I guess," The werewolf said quietly, "the stress has got to you Hermione. But just think, in 12 hours time, it will be a new dawn, a new day and a new era."

Hermione was shaking as she sat back down. Nott's arms were no longer touching her and he looked pained, or as pained as he ever did look. She felt as divided as she ever had between the two; Malfoy and Nott. Goosebumps ran up and down her arms... and then something cold touched her cheek. It felt like a Dementor's touch would.

'I''m coming, Granger. I'm coming for you.' Malfoy whispered. 'Your time is up.'

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