Hello! And welcome to my new Dramione fic Bound by Blood. This will be post-Hogwarts fan fiction. Any positive/constructive criticism is appreciated, while flame reviews are not and will be ignored. If Dramione isn't your cup of tea, drink something else. Thank you, and enjoy Bound by Blood! Also, HP and co do not belong to me.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the seventh years who fought in and survived the war were invited back to Hogwarts by Headmistress McGonagall. During their final year at the wizarding school, there was still some animosity towards the Slytherin House. While the professors did what they could to keep the younger Slytherin students' bullying a minimum, many of the older sixth and seventh-year students ignored it, including Draco Malfoy. Other than that, the returning seventh-year students were able to graduate and go their separate ways.

Ron became a professional Quidditch player and Harry an Auror with no problem. They welcomed him with open arms into the Auror department of the Ministry. Despite winning the war against Voldemort, the Wizarding World still felt its effects four years later.

While her best friends found professions they enjoyed, Hermione studied and worked her way up through the Ministry of Magic's ranks, trying to prove her worth as a witch. Not very many of her coworkers took her seriously as a Muggleborn. So, she did something the Ministry refused to acknowledge for over three centuries: the decline of Wizard kind in Great Britain. The Dark Lord's rise to power certainly did not help this, as he destroyed the records of magical children born in the nineteen-nineties.

The Wizengamot refused to acknowledge this for years before it was too late. The British Wizarding population was at an all-time low for the first time in centuries.

She did what she did best. She studied and read many books on wizarding history, not just from Great Britain but from other magic countries. She wanted to try to find a way to help with the decline. She was starting to give up, and there was her answer in a book of magic that dated to the time Merlin lived. Fortunately for the Ministry of Magic, the smartest witch of her generation had found a solution. While she thought it was the best solution at the time, she never thought she had become the first witch to test the magic herself.

It was Hermione's day off, and she wanted to go out to Diagon Alley. She was smiling to herself, knowing that her best friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley would come to visit for a couple of days. They wrote her saying they would come to visit when Quidditch season and Harry's latest case were over.

"Harry! Ron!" Hermione shouted with surprise and hugged them both. The boys decided to surprise her on a day off now that the Quidditch season just ended the week before, and Harry caught his first break in months working in the Auror department. "What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you two this early."

"We wanted to surprise you, so we rode our brooms over to where we knew you would be on your day off," Ronald said with a smirk, looking up at the sign of the bookstore they had just stopped her before going in.

"Wow, you two do know me quite well," Hermione giggled. "Let's not forget who got you two out of trouble at Hogwarts because I was reading all the time."

"Fair enough 'Mione," Harry smiled. "Let's go grab a table at Rosa Lee Teabag for lunch."

"Sounds good to me, mate," Ron replied as his stomach growled. Hermione sighed and smiled. "My life would be so boring without you two."

"Hermione. Who else would be able to get your nose out of those books you read all day?" Ron joked, and they all laughed, walking down the street to the little tea shop. Little did she know about the next surprise Ron had planned for her.

For months, Harry had been helping Ron plan this surprise engagement at the tea shop. Ron wanted it to be especially perfect. Harry helped with the costs and decorations for the little tea shop. Neither of them wanted this to go wrong.

The trio walked together down Diagon Alley to the tea shop, but Hermione noticed the blinds were down, and the closed sign was up.

"Harry, are you sure they're open?" She asked, looking a little worried.

"Of course, I'm sure 'Mione. Look, I'll knock and check who's inside." He replied while knocking on the door in a peculiar pattern. The door opened just wide enough for him to slip inside but not enough for her to see what was going on.

"Ron, why is Harry acting so weird?"

"Don't know. Why don't I go on and ask?" Ron said as he also knocked on the door in the same pattern Harry used.

"Alright. Don't take too long now."

So, she waited outside for them to come back out, but then a minute passed. Then five. Another five.

"Okay, I've waited long enough now," she mumbled. "I'm coming in, guys!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE!" came to her ears as she walked through the door. It was her friends. Harry, the Weasleys, Luna, Neville, even some of Ron's teammates, and a few of her coworkers were there. She looked around the room for Ron but did not see him. Then everyone went silent and noticed they were looking behind her. She turned around and looked down at Ron on one knee. He looked back up at her and saw how beautiful she indeed was.

"You know Hermione; I've wanted to ask you something for the longest time. I know we have been dating on and off for years, ever since the war ended, but you are the only woman I have ever loved. Would you do me the pleasure of making me the happiest man in the world and marry me?"

She gasped with tears in her eyes and pulled him in for a kiss neither of them wanted to end. "Yes!" she finally answered, and he slipped the ring onto her ring finger where she felt it belong.

"This is the best birthday ever, Ronald! I love you!" she exclaimed, kissing him again.

What no one noticed was the tall, blond wizard who slipped out of the back door of the little tea shop.