Hello again everybody! Long time no see! Way too long actually and I am very sorry about that. Honestly? I'm super lazy. And my mind is completely blocked. I have no idea how to end this - I don't even know how it got this far. 7 chapters! I keep surprising myself. Anyway. This has to come to an end and I think I have some basic guidelines on how to do just that. Won't be perfect - doubt it will even be great - but it is what it is. I am really sorry for disappointing you with the long absences and the bad writing quality but I hope I can atone with my second story. Go on now, read on, see you again at the end!

Today

She had fallen asleep barely two hours before her alarm woke her. Still in a sleep-induced nirvana, she just shut it off and turned on her other side ready to go back to the land where reality was but a mere memory. She was instantly alert though when her knee bumped into something solid. One hand already grasping at her wand from beneath her pillow, she opened her eyes only to come face to face with a wooden tray full of breakfast next to her on the bed. The witch sat up puzzled, neither Harry nor Ron would ever bring her breakfast in bed if they popped by and she honestly doubted Draco would be awake before noon. Maybe tomorrow, with how much he had drunk. She scanned the pancakes and eggs and sausages and eyed the glass full of chocolate milk suspiciously but a quick spell revealed nothing had been poisoned.

She was about to call out, her shoulders tense and ready to cast a fast Protego if necessary but her bedroom door opened and Draco walked in with a plate of croissants in hand. He gave her a sheepish smile and rushed to seat himself on her reading chair by the window as she pulled back closer to the wall in a defensive stance. Did he know what had happened? She remembered clearly and she could barely find the strength to not look away from him. But he seemed at complete ease, as if nothing had changed. Wrong, he brought her breakfast so something must have changed. What that was, she had no idea. And it was making her skin crawl, she once again couldn't figure him out and that never sat well with her.

"Good morning, love" he greeted her, an eyebrow raised at her stance but the smile not leaving his lips. "Hope you slept well though I doubt you got enough sleep, what with everything happening. Made you breakfast to make it up to you. Well. Bought you breakfast? I doubt you would have appreciated waking up by the fire alarm so I stayed out of the kitchen. Can't say I've ever been skilled in that department, what with being raised to believe it was the domain of house eves and house elves only. I seriously can't even remember going into the kitchens as a child, not even for a snack. Not saying it was a good way of raising a child but I'm just trying to justify myself since this wasn't exactly the thoughtful gesture I had planned. No matter though, eat up, old pancakes are just a disgrace."

She just gaped at him. Since when did Draco Malfoy ramble? And what the hell was he talking about? House elves? "What the fuck are you going on about, Malfoy?" she blurted out, the hoarseness in her voice making her cough. His face fell at that, now he was also confused by her behavior. "I got you breakfast? I wanted to do something nice about you. You let me crash at your place and took care of me when I was drunk and... Well, it was the least I could do."

Her eyes widened and she started coughing again. So he did remember. He must have, that was what he was referring to, right? And he was so casual about it. The explanation popped up in her mind and her eyes hardened as she stared him down, making him shuffle in his seat, the croissants long forgotten. "Least you could do, huh? So is that what you do with all of your one-night stands? Am I special enough to deserve your minimum effort, Malfoy? Is it because I'm not a gold digger, do you pay all your other fangirls but you know that wouldn't work on me so you got me breakfast instead? Is that my compensation for my services?"

His eyes darkened and he sat up straighter. She could recognize the anger on his face but she couldn't care at all if he had been hurt or insulted. Right now, she was feeling pretty hurt and insulted too and his feelings weren't really her top priority. "Don't you dare, Hermione. Don't you dare. What is wrong with you? One night you are all for fucking me and the next you accuse me of treating you like a common whore? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he spat at her, his anger building up, barely kept in check by one hand clutching the armrest and the other the plate of food.

"What is wrong with me? You used me, Malfoy! You come in pissed and start groping me and you think that's okay? You think some pancakes and eggs will make that alright? You used me! You-" she broke off, a figurative lightbulb going on in her head and she gasped, clutching her chest. She realized her mistake as all the puzzle pieces started to fall into place. He had the right to be angry. Her words were unjust. She was wrong. "I used you. I'm sorry Malfoy, for my words and for what happened. I shouldn't have done that, you were inebriated and had no control of yourself. You are not- You're not obligated to make me breakfast and act all friendly. My actions were unforgivable and I apologize. It is most definitely not happening again. Now if you could please leave the room, I need to get dressed so that we can go find you an apartment." He stood up and started to speak but she silenced him with a glare. "Wait for me outside, I won't be more than 5 minutes."

He could recognize her stubborn look everywhere and knew there was no talking to her right now. He had to wait until she was ready to listen and then he would tell her. He would finally tell her how she had helped him back at the Great Hall. How he had been dying to contact her ever since that day. How she had captivated his interest form that first business date with his mother. How the Malfoy matriarch had been pestering him to ask her to all the galas their family was forced to attend. How he had been left speechless when she started voluntarily having lunches with him. How he had chickened out of asking her on a date so many times. Just like he had now. He had been a coward again. No, no more. She had to listen to him, even if it was just to reject him, she had to realize she couldn't always be in control of everything.

He stormed back in her room and froze in his tracks as she screeched, arms covering her bra-clad chest in an attempt to preserve her modesty. At least she was wearing pants, those tight muggle jeans that he truly appreciated. "Merlin, Malfoy, I told you I need 5 minutes!" she screamed and threw a pillow at him in an attempt to get him to go away. "Go on a date with me" he heard himself offer and mentally facepalmed at his own stupidity. But it kind of worked, she stopped screeching as she gaped at him, her almost bare torso forgotten. "I told you you don't need to -"

"Shut up and listen to someone other than yourself for once, witch. I like you. It's so obvious, if I wasn't brought up mastering to hide my emotions I would question your so called brilliance for not figuring out sooner. And yes, last night was a shitshow and it utterly complicates things but it brought us here and I doubt I would have mustered up the courage to tell you otherwise. Slytherin, remember? You are the courageous ones. But I like you. You interested me back at school but you were a muggle born so it hadn't even crossed my mind. I mocked your compassion but it saved me that day at the Great Hall, your forgiveness saved me. You saw through the Dark Mark on my arm and through all my bullshit facades and you understood me. I'll never admit it again but you are so much smarted than me and that intrigued me. You are an excellent conversationalist and it admittedly took me a while to figure out my intentions towards you weren't completely innocent and platonic. Mother saw it first, you know she really appreciated your spirit. "First time a lion resembles a snake so much" she said. She had it all planned out in her head way before we even started talking regularly so I only hope she's giving me her "I told you so" smirk right now. But I finally made some sense out of it and I like you. Not just physically - although you will never see me complaining about that, you have definitely grown to be a captivating woman - but intellectually too. And I think you like me too. Or at least I intrigue you. You are not so good with hiding your thoughts so I know you've been trying to make sense of me all this time. So please, give me a chance and I'll help you understand me. One lunch date, is that too much to ask?"

Epilogue

Neither of them could honestly say it had always been great. The relationship had almost been over before it had even started - one inconsiderate comment was all it took to have Hermione storm out of the very private restaurant Draco had taken her to that very same day. But who would expect anything less from two such strong personalities? They clashed a lot, like two goats butting heads, but when they worked together, there was barely anything that could stand against them. Harry had gone down first, his gentle and forgiving nature as well as his desire to put the past behind him made it easy to accept his old nemesis and his best friend's new boyfriend. George surprisingly came next and the two fit together better than expected, Draco's mischievous side an outlet the twin had lost a long time ago and there were a lot of products at the joke shop now inspired by the younger Slytherin.

Ginny and Ron held out the most, the rest of the Weasleys surrendering quickly once they saw how Draco helped coax George out of his shell. And Ginny was the catalyst that made Ron Weasley forgive and forget, her relationship with another Slytherin - the one and only Astoria Greengrass - making the hot-tempered redhead's overprotective nature accept his former rival house as just normal witches and wizards.

Not that these were the only problems they faced. The public seemed very opinionated against the war heroine dating a criminal. Draco received death threats on the daily - even more so than before - and an ambush on the street that left Hermione in the hospital for a couple of months almost made him give up. No one could believe it when Harry, Ron and Neville kicked down the door to their new apartment and stayed there for a whole week until he was talked out of leaving the country and disappearing. The other thing that held him back was the news of Hermione's undiscovered pregnancy - the baby had been harmed during the attack and their daughter was smaller and weaker and with one arm less than other babies but Iris Granger-Malfoy was adored by her parents and all her aunts and uncles.

Hermione refused his marriage proposals many times before and after the birth of their daughter. The pureblood society pressure almost made her break after she kept being asked by strangers about when they were going to be "a proper family and do justice" by their daughter but she held her head high and stuck to her muggle roots. They had another accidental baby couple of years later, Diana, a young tomboy that fought with anything and everyone, especially to protect her older sister. But even then, they didn't get married. Draco was okay with it by that point, they had forsaken so many traditions, what was another one in the list? They had also forgone the constellation traditions, they both wanted a completely blank page to build their lives and they had agreed to hold on to nothing from their past. So they made a new tradition, mythology names, something they were both deeply interested in. And on their wedding night she simply let him know their son would be named Icarus - he had begged for Anubis but she had threatened to divorce him before their first month together.

He would never understand her. A witch from the muggle world that refused to be alienated from her roots even if that stubbornness stood as a continuous obstacle in the course of her life. She hyphenated his last name and she refused to have a pureblood wedding and she would have made his father roll in his grave. She would never understand him. A pureblood wizard who was born and raised to despise everything she stood for but who worshiped the ground she stood on and would tarnish his reputation and family name in seconds just to make her smile. They were the personification of the old age meeting the new one. She inspired witches around the world with her modern views, becoming a working mother, refusing to own house elves but instead paying them for their help, showing emotion in public, rising in positions of power and not balancing her family and work life without giving up anything. He inspired wizards with his changed attitude, supporting his wife instead of holding her back, being happy to have her outshine him, unabashedly showing love and affection (something taboo for wizards and muggle men alike), gladly staying home to take care of baby Magni when his wife got pregnant during her second year as Minister of Magic and disregarding the past prejudices.

Sometimes they infuriated each other. Other times they could barely go a couple of hours without seeing each other. But they stuck with each other through everything. And one thing they agreed on was to never tell their children how exactly they came to be together.

The End

So that was it! Finally over, more than a year later. I really hope you liked it, this chapter started out kind of forced but then it flowed so easily so I hope it's good for all of you out there. Once again, sorry to make you wait so long for this. But I hope it was worth it. Stick around, I'll be posting another one soon. Until then...

Good morning, and in case I don't see you: Good afternoon, good evening and good night!