Chapter 10

Hermione held Draco hand as he watched his mother lowered into the ground below. She remembered all the looks they had gotten that morning, when she was found in his bed. It was like everyone wanted to yell at them or shame them for being lovers, but no one dare. She didn't much care for the looks as she moved a bit closer to him. They made her feel like she was cheating on some unknown test she was taking. Which was crazy, because most the people she knew didn't care about blood or tests. Maybe it was the fact he was a Malfoy that was the problem people had with them being together. That too seemed unfair Draco had proven he was not 'A Malfoy' like all the others, he was his own person.

She looked over to him, he hadn't cried once yet that day, nor said a word more then he need too. She could tell he was fighting the eager to burst into tears even now and she wished he wouldn't. Draco had every right to cry, to fall apart and lose control. The question was why he wouldn't do it. She already knew the answer was because he had spent years keeping that damn mask on. The one his father had made him wear! She'd find away to take it off and for good.

She knew Draco loved her, he had said so that morning. She had not said it back, because she didn't know what she thought about it. When she had seen him relax at the table giving Mr. Weasley advice on how to make money, she thought him rather cute. But when he walked out to the reporters, without even thinking about what kind of danger he was putting himself in, just to get them to leave the Weasley family alone. She knew she wanted to feel him again. Not like the times before when it was all about lust. No that time she wished to see what the man under the mask was like. To her delight, he was amazing and once the 'aw' of the real him past. She too said she loved him and would not leave him again.

Hermione had to look up at him once more hoping that mask was gone, still no tears as he listened to the priest. Her eyes looked past him, to see Snape running toward them. Something was wrong about the way he looked; something told her deep in her gut it was trouble. She didn't even know why she drawl her wand or why she hit him with a spell sending him flying backwards. Everyone was taken off guard, even her lover. Yet, she knew in her gut it was the right thing to do. The look on his face was not the same as all the other looks they had been given, nor was it like any she had seen Snape give her. It was the look of hate and murder she had see on another man's face, that made her gut know to attack.

That was Lucius Malfoy's mistake, not the running, not the forum of Snape, not even showing up so late into the ceremony. It was the fact he could not hide his rage, at seeing Draco with her. He could not hide his hate for them both for being lovers and he could not hide his intent to kill them for their love no matter who saw them or him doing it. There was never a big show down, nor should there have been one. Lucius got the befitting end he should of, hand cuffs, chains, prison, and to be reminded as long as he lived of Draco betrayal to a muggle born.

The next few years Hermione make sure to send the man, photos of her and Draco building a life together. She'd make sure to rub it in good and hard when Draco asked her to marry him. She sent him all kinds of photo's form the wedding, to the wedding night. Maybe under it all she was a bit of a snake too. Because the day their first child was born, she wrote a long letter to her father in law, about how prod his son was of his filthy mudblooded baby boy and how he already spoke of having many more. It had taken her years to undo all the damage he had done to his son, but Hermione loved each moment of it. The moments she think of the most, were the one he dropped that mask, each time longer then the next, until it was finely gone for good.

She always knew deep down when Draco had said all those nasty things to her back in school, it was because of his father. An now she got to punish the man that hurt her the most when she was younger. Lucius Malfoy, the monster who killed his own wife that was trying to protect her son form being kill by him. The man who hand brain washed his son into being cold, dark, and empty for years and when Draco finely showed he was more than that, Lucius had almost killed him. The man who'd be screaming in his cell; at that very moment how he would kill his son, daughter in law, and grandson over blood.

Hermione smiled as she looked over to her husband, he was feeding their new born baby. That mask he had worn for years, gone from his face as he smiled wide, talking to his son. He was free of his father, free of the darkness and free of the mask. He was the man she loved and had loved long before either of them had kissed. Though she did have a photo of their first kiss next too their bed. One she was grateful had been taken even though it had coursed so much trouble for them. It was the reason they had found each other.

Nothing in the word mattered to them at that moment; there was still a war on. There were still battles and dangers outside their door step. Death eater walked the streets, the dark Lord hide in the darkness and everyone was scared, but for Draco and Hermione Malfoy there was only this moment in time, to bad no one was there to take their photo."

The end

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the ending, I did my best to make sure it was not rushed, been working on it for days now. It is short, but I guess all my ending are short. Well anyways hope it doesn't feel rushed