Disclaimer: I own nothing except for my ideas. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: hello! I'm so sorry it's been SO long since I've posted. Life has been crazy and I've been super busy, graduating high school and stuff. I've struggled with some Writer's Block, but here we are: another chapter. I hope I haven't lost all of you! I do love you for reading. If I don't repsond to your reviews, don't think I don't see them because I do and they make my day. I LOVE YOU ALL FOR READING! PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! xx

Chapter Twenty-Two: Awake My Soul

"Marley shouldn't have slapped you."

Both Harry and Ron turned to look at Hermione, stopping their awkward conversation. Hermione blushed slightly, but continued on.

"She shouldn't have. It wasn't right." Hermione explained. "I may have thought about doing a lot worse to you over the years - and when you first entered the room - but I know that it wouldn't be fair. Because you weren't you. You were ill."

Ron looked speechless and Hermione felt Harry squeeze her hand before dropping it and wrapping an arm around her, pulling her close. She was grateful for Harry's support, but she was beginning to realize that she didn't need it to say these words. She didn't need anybody's support to say them - not even Draco's.

She wanted to say them, because they were the truth.

"I loved you, Ron. I loved you so much - never the way you loved me, but I did. You know that. Harry knows that. Everyone knows that. You were my best friend. And we'll never be the same, but... you're still Ron. Seeing you now... I know that you're Ron." Hermione whispered.

"Thank you." Ron said after a long moment of silence, his voice thick.

"I'm sorry that we never got to meet your wife." Harry said.

Hermione recognized true pain in his eyes, and she knew that he had loved her - Maria - with all of his heart.

"You would've liked her, I think. A lot." Ron whispered. "Rose wakes up every night, asking for her - and I've got to tell her all over again. And Connor... well, he mostly just stays quiet."

For the first time since arriving, Hermione let herself relax ever so slightly. Ron wasn't dangerous - he would never hurt her or her family in the same way he had in the past.

Her daughter was right - it was time to face things and move on.

. . .

"This is it, right Mer?"

Meredith nodded quickly at Leo. Her face was in his hands and she was letting tears flow freely from her eyes - just like he was. This was a big moment for the both of them, and it had been over two years in the making. She had spent so long longing for Leo, as well as being afraid of him and all of their baggage.

"Because I can't lose you again. I don't think I would make it." Leo whispered, pressing his forehead back to hers. "I don't like life without you. And I have to know that you won't freak out on me when you wake up tomorrow morning. You have to promise that you won't run away scared, because I know you, Meredith. And I know that you're terrified of us, but I also know that you love me just as much as I love you."

She knew that Leo was entirely right - when she woke up in the morning, she would be scared out of her mind. But she knew she couldn't run anymore. She needed to properly grieve the death of her daughter, with the one person in the world who could understand just what she was feeling. And the one person in the world whom she knew she was meant to spend the rest of her life with.

Her heart filled up when he said love.

"I love you. I love you. I love you." Meredith whispered, the words falling out from her mouth before she even had time to think.

She watched Leo's eyes light up as she spoke, and a sudden warmth filled her entire being at his smile.

"I love you, too, Mer. I love you, too." he whispered back, capturing her lips in a passionate kiss once more.

"I'm in this, Leo. I'm in it." Meredith said, pulling back to look into his sweet, loving eyes.

This time, she kissed him. She slipped her tongue into his mouth as his hands ran up and down her body, making her remember every intimate moment they had ever spent together. Before she knew what was happening, the two had fumbled their way over to Leo's bed, lying down intertwined and close, kissing each other as if they were the last people on earth.

. . .

Marley was utterly speechless in the best way possible.

When they broke away from one another, she just stared at him. She knew exactly what she wanted to say back - it was what she had been feeling for as long as she could remember.

But she was stuck. She was stuck staring at him.

"Marley?" he asked, a nervous laugh escaping from his lips - the kind Marley knew he did when he was feeling extra vulnerable and didn't want to show it. "You in there?"

"Do you know that I've been waiting for you to say that since we could first speak?" Marley whispered.

She watched James' eyes light up as he placed his hands on her waist and pulled her close to him.

"D'you mean that?" he whispered.

Marley let out a laugh and kissed him deeply. "Of course I do, you idiot."

James smiled brilliantly at her, and Marley knew that she couldn't hold it in anymore either. This was James. This was her best friend in the entire world and the person who knew her best.

"I love you, too." she whispered, kissing him again.

They kissed and kissed until Marley was breathless. She pulled away and rested her forehead against his. She saw his eyes shining and knew that hers were too. This was it. This was what they had both been waiting for for as long as they could remember.

"Loving you scares the shit out of me." she whispered.

"Yeah. Scares me too. That's why I haven't told you until now." he whispered back before planting a kiss on her forehead.

She wrapped her arms around his middle and rested herself against him, closing her eyes and letting herself take in the moment. She could feel his love - and now that she knew, she realized that it had always been there from him. She had just been too stubborn and afraid to believe it.

"All I've ever wanted all my life was you." she decided to say softly, looking back up at him. "Throughout everything, I've just wanted you."

James just stared at her, his eyes shining brightly. He leaned down and kissed her passionately, and she kissed him right back.

. . .

"Ginny, you need to let me go downstairs." Draco grumbled, narrowing his eyebrows at the red head.

Ginny shook her head as she continued to braid Rose's hair. "No. You need to let them do this."

"She's my daughter, too! Not Harry's!" Draco shouted.

He watched Connor raise his eyebrows at him from his spot across the room and Rose literally jump in her seat on the bed. Ginny shook her head sternly at him, and he felt bad for shouting immediately. He just couldn't help it. He was too worried about Hermione.

"I know that. We all know that. But, you know the history between the three of them is far more complicated than me and you probably even realize." Ginny continued, sighing and shaking her head. "And we have to let them talk."

Draco knew that Ginny was right - but that didn't calm him down in the slightest.

"They went through the War together, Draco. They were each other's only comfort for so long and..." Ginny began, trailing off.

Draco noticed something change in Ginny's eyes and he attempted to force his focus onto that, and not on the conversation occurring floors below him.

"And what?" Draco prodded.

"I'm sorry. I think sometimes I forget that." she whispered.

Draco knew that Ginny was thinking of Hermione and Harry's past 'relationship'. He sat down next to Ginny as she finished up Rose's plait and shifted her onto her lap.

"Are you weally my Auntie?" Rose asked.

"Yes I am." she smiled softly.

Draco watched as Rose smiled back before climbing down and walking over to Connor. Ginny looked back at Draco and sighed.

"After all this time... it's just hard for me to forget it happened sometimes, and I don't know why." Ginny whispered.

Draco looked at Ginny and sighed. He knew that she was struggling. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him.

"Look, you know there's nothing between them, and there hasn't been since all those years ago. Twenty years ago." Draco sighed.

"I know, but..."

"But Harry and Hermione are best friends. You know that nothing can ever change that. They're each other's family, just like we are. They've really been the only constants in each other's lives, you know?" Draco said.

As he said the words, Draco felt them truly sink into him. Ginny looked up from her spot on his shoulder and smiled weakly at him.

"I know." she whispered.

Ginny pulled him into a hug and he felt himself relax. As much as he hated Ron Weasley - and always would - he knew that Hermione could handle herself. It had been Ron's illness, not him.

"My brother loved your wife more than anything in this whole world. The only thing that could compare was how much he loved Meredith." Ginny whispered. "He's not going to hurt them. He's better now."

"Yeah." Draco said.

Even though he hated Ron for everything that had happened, and did not trust him in the slightest - he knew that he would not hurt his family.

. . .

It was as if Leo and Meredith were making up for all of their lost time. When Meredith had to pull away from his lips for breath, his lips were on her neck or her collarbone, giving her all kinds of pleasure. She slipped her hands under his shirt, lifting it up over his head. He looked down at her, cradling her face and smiling.

Meredith couldn't help but return it. She giggled softly before Leo pressed his lips back to hers. He ran his hands up her shirt, causing goosebumps to crawl upon her skin. Once her shirt was off, she just pressed herself closer. She couldn't believe that she had wasted so much time being afraid of Leo and their past together. She was struck by a thousand memories of their nights together, before and after Ava.

"Are you okay?" Leo whispered, pulling away for a moment and pausing on the buttons of her jeans.

"I'm more than okay." she whispered back.

Leo nodded and she pulled his face back to hers, kissing his lips as passionately as she could. They rolled around, fumbling their familiar way around each other as they took themselves further and further.

"I love you, Mer." Leo whispered just before taking each other all the way.

"I love you, too, Leo."

. . .

Hermione felt herself laughing genuinely along with Ron and Harry, and it surprised her. She hadn't felt this - nor longed for this - feeling in so long. Laughing with her two best friends. Instantly, she was catapulted backwards through time when it had just been the three of them against the world.

She felt her eyes tear up and knew that it hadn't gone unnoticed when both Ron and Harry stopped laughing to look at her. Harry slid closer to her and grabbed her hand, squeezing it.

"What is it?" Harry asked softly. "Are you alright?"

She knew that he was wondering how she was handling all of this. She looked up at him and then looked at Ron, noticing his eyes tearing up as well - something she knew she had only seen a few times.

"I'm fine... it's just this." she whispered, gesturing around with her free hand.

She looked at Harry, knowing that he got what she meant. The three of them, sitting around the Burrow laughing and joking with one another. So many years ago, it had been like that all the time - between the darkness, of course.

"This feels so much like it used to, and... and I miss it. I didn't realize how much I'd missed it until right now." she said slowly, the tears dripping down her cheeks. "This used to be everything, you know? The three of us... it was just the three of us for so long."

Hermione now looked at Harry and found tears in his eyes as well. Ron widened his eyes and nodded next to her on the couch. Slowly, she nodded in agreement, allowing him to sit next to her.

"It can't ever be like that again." Hermione whispered. "I know you were ill, Ron. And I'm done blaming you but... I can't, you know? I just can't. I can't do that to Meredith."

Ron nodded. "Of course. I wouldn't expect anything, Hermione. I don't expect to even see you again after this, really. Either of you."

His voice was thick and Hermione allowed him to take her hand. She squeezed both his hand and Harry's and let herself cry. They squeezed right back, moving in a little bit closer.

"Still the emotional one out of us, I see." Ron joked.

Hermione nudged him and let out a laugh as she cried. Both of them suddenly wrapped their arms around her and she did the same, hugging them tighter than ever. She closed her eyes, allowing herself one moment to pretend that she was back there - young again, when things had been so different.

Her life now was nothing like what she had once expected it to be as a young teenager, but she wouldn't change it for a second. All of her heart loved Draco and their children. She wished desperately that Ron could be a part of that and their lives, but she knew that it couldn't happen. There was too much between them. And while they could forgive, they certainly couldn't forget.

No one could ever forget.

. . .

Draco and Ginny paused on the bottom of the stairs, watching Harry, Hermione and Ron embrace.

Draco had a strange feeling in his stomach. He certainly hadn't been expecting that. He could hear Hermione weeping quietly, and all he wanted to do was scoop her up and take her out of there. Except, he got the sense that he wasn't what she needed in that moment. She needed her two oldest friends - and he knew that was alright.

Of course, it burned him to his very core to watch Ron Weasley even be remotely close to Hermione. But, he knew Hermione needed it for a moment. She needed it - she needed him - to get past everything. The only way past it was to muddle through it.

He felt Ginny's hand slip into his own and he looked down at her, finding her eyes filled with tears as well.

"I watched Ron love her all my childhood and beyond that. Ever since he came home from Hogwarts after his First Year, he loved her." Ginny said quietly, so only he could hear. "My husband loves her so much. Not the way he loves me, mind you. But he does love her, in the way that he should. But you love her more than anyone. She belongs with you."

Draco took in her every word and squeezed her hand, unable to take his eyes off of the former Golden Trio before him.

"She's loved both of them. They were her whole life at a point. They'll all always be special to one another. You can't have Hermione without getting a bit of Harry, and vice versa." she continued. "But, I've never seen her love anyone the way she's loved you these last twenty years. She loves you - and your children - more than anyone in the world."

Draco turned to her and grabbed both of her shoulders gently. He smiled softly at her, far more thankful for her words than he knew she realized. He kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly for a moment before looking at her again.

"And I've never seen Harry love anyone the way he loves you." he said.

Draco turned back to look at his wife and her old friends. They had broken apart slightly and he could see tears upon all of their faces. Ginny took his hand again and pulled him out of their concealed spot. Hermione caught his eye and stood up, immediately rushing to him. She threw her arms around him and pressed her lips upon his, kissing him much deeper than he had anticipated.

When they broke apart, he smiled. "Hello there, angel."

She rested herself against him and he wrapped an arm around her waist, looking about the room. Harry had made his way to Ginny, and was holding her close in his arms. He could see him whispering to Ginny in between kisses. Ron was sitting upon the couch, waving Connor and Rose over from the stairs. Rose jumped onto his lap and Connor leaned against him.

Draco looked back down at Hermione, smoothing back her hair and kissing her forehead.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly.

She nodded. "Yeah, I think I am."

He smiled, kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around his middle, and he kissed the top of her head, breathing in the familiar scent of her hair.

He was alright, too.

And that was more than enough for now.

Author's Note #2: I'm on summer holidays now, so I'm trying to write a fair bit more. hopefully it won't take long for another chapter, please bear with me! thanks for reading, please review! they mean everything to me xx