When all is said and done

When the battles are lost and won,

Find me where the mountains scrape the sky,

Where even the roads have stairs to climb

There I'll stand, with no mask or alibi.

Our meeting there will break the paradigm.

There I'll wait, come snow and rain.

For you I'll wait years and not in vain.

For this I believe, deep down in my heart.

Far better together, than us apart.

"One last, for olde time's sake," Draco said, letting the school owl go, addressed to "Sal" as always. Come the new year, he couldn't afford to be this distracted - Pansy had sharp eyes, and he was to be engaged to her, for his house's sake!*

Hermione snatched the letter from her owl, ignoring Ron's, "Still writing is he?" and Harry's not so subtle wince. She was halfway up the stairs before she'd really thought about it - Did he see what she'd written? Did he write back?

He was talking about Peru, of all the hidden, mystical places in this world, Peru! It was an easy cipher, and yet... the words seemed to sway differently. It wasn't just Starting Anew. It was Getting Away from Everything. Perhaps fitting if he figured the war would be something he wouldn't want to remember. He'd never said that he would choose the Light side... Hermione frowned. It wasn't like she'd had much choice - he might not either.

Hermione frowned as she read it again, it had the feeling of an ending. Of a door closing, of cherry blossoms falling from the tree. "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..." Hermione hummed thoughtfully.** If he really wasn't going to write more... Hermione shot up straight. She had it! The exact right thing... She grabbed up her Compleat Works of William Shakespeare, and grabbed up a bookmark (one with a holographic unicorn on it), scrawling a quick message. Really, it was the best she could say... No time for regrets now! She shoved the bookmark neatly into the book (bookmarking Romeo and Juliet), and frankly flew down the stairs.

Muggle Studies, she'd do Muggle Studies first. Zambini was the only Slytherin in it, and she cornered him two hallways distant. "Give the writer this," Hermione said urgently, shoving a very, very large book into Zambini's gut.

"As my lady bids," Zambini said, the irony thick in his voice, and yet his bow perfectly respectful.

*House in this case means his family.

**Closing Time, by Semisonic. It was played so much on MTV I have it memorized. Yes, it's a bit anachronistic. Deal.

[a/n: Wow, five reviews in a day! Of course you can have another chapter. The next one will deal with Draco getting the book. And, of course, what Hermione wrote. Can you guess? If not, write a review anyway!

And no, the story isn't over when the poetry stops. There'll be the ball on Saturday, and then... well, I'd call them "Endless Epilogues" like I did with my Subtle Scent of Oak and Onion, but these are really midlogues (interludes) before we get into the meat of the tale.]