THREE YEARS LATER-2001

This is going to be awful, Hermione thought as she fidgeted at her dress robes in the mirror propped up against a blank, white wall. She had tried to find the little makeup that she owned, but it was in one of the many boxes scattered around the flat and there was no way was she going to go digging through boxes right now. It was a miracle she had remembered about the damn ball (yesterday) and gone to get new robes (literally this morning). This was the problem with seeing the same people, and really most of the Wizarding World that she interacted with, at the same event annually. You couldn't get away with re-wearing robes. And this year she needed to Show Up. Not for revenge or anything, she reminded herself, of course not. But she needed to show that she was just as confident and just as interesting and just fine thank you very much for asking. So she had gone with a confident color for assistance. The new robes were a deep scarlet and her lips were a new coral-red she had bought when she had realized she didn't own any lipstick, and she had indulgently charmed her tawny skin to shimmer ever so slightly in the candlelight. She still looked modest and appropriate, and anyone could write the whole thing off as a bit of Gryffindor pride. But no matter how well she planned or how good she looked, she still knew tonight would be something to survive more than the party it had felt like in previous years. With a deep breath, looking around at her new, empty flat, she picked up a pinch of floo powder and stepped into the fireplace.

"Hermione!" She searched for the familiar voice that had called her over as soon as she had entered the Hall.

"Parvati." She walked smoothly over to her old roommate and hugged her lightly. "You look beautiful. How are you?"

Parvati smiled widely, putting a comforting hand on Hermione's arm. "I'm doing so well dear, but how are you?" The pity was dripping from her words.

Hermione was prepared for this. She rolled her shoulders back, her wild hair falling behind her shoulders. "Oh, I'm doing quite well. Just got back from Spain, actually!"

Parvati raised an eyebrow but her smile didn't falter. "Of course. Look at you, having fun while the rest of us settle down and get so boring!" Her smile was somehow both sweet and poisonous. A beautiful woman came up behind her and put her hand on Parvati's waist. "Babe, we should get back to our table." Parvati wrapped her arm around the woman's waist, bringing her face to face with Hermione. "Hermione, have you met my partner, Sara?"

The woman reached out to shake Hermione's hand. "So nice to meet you. This is the wildest party." Hermione looked around at the very tame tables of wizards and witches. Even the students were behaving so early in the night. "Pavi warned me but I still couldn't believe it when my glass just refilled all by itself!"

Parvati smiled and touched the muggle's cheek. "You're so cute." The Gryffindor hugged Hermione with a real kindness that took her by surprise, then held her shoulders. "You look wonderful. I won't say I'm not a bit jealous of your life right now. Look me up if you're ever in Brighton, we'd love to have you for dinner."

Hermione realized her entire body was tense and tried to relax with a deep breath as the women walked away. Parvati was one of the worst gossips she knew and she had been mostly fine. Maybe that would be the worst of it.

"That makes SO. MUCH. SENSE." The voice at her side used to belong to her. Preparing herself, she turned and looked up at Ron. He shrugged in response. "Figured I'd break the ice." His smile was weirdly normal considering they hadn't spoken in three months. "Come on, we're sitting in the back." He tilted his head in the direction of the Weasley's table.

"No, Ron that's okay" she began to protest half-heartedly, "I don't want to, you know, make anyone uncomfortable."

"Nonsense." He grabbed her hand, gently pulling her with him. "You are never not going to be an honorary Weasley, Hermione." He reassured her as he led her. "You can't shake us, you know that." They approached the table. "Look who I found! Oh! And Parvati Patil is totally GAY!" He stage-whispered the last few words.

Hermione couldn't help but grin. Perhaps nobody changed in only a few months, but Ron was exactly the same as he had been the morning he had ended things between them. Ginny was already running up to hug her and didn't hide her excitement. "You look A-BLOODY-MAZING. Also, duh! She slept in Lavender's bed half the time, and anybody who played Truth or Dare with them knew they BOTH used tongue!" Harry and Ron turned around lightning-fast to stare at Ginny, who threw her head back laughing. Hermione giggled, shaking her head at her friends.

She sat at the seat saved for her between Harry and George and they watched as the Headmistress gave her speech, commanded a moment of silence, and launched the feast. As they began to eat, Harry leaned forward as though to whisper to the entire table. "Does anybody else completely hate the moment of silence?" They all laughed and nodded. "Okay good, it's not just me."

"I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Potter." Harry's eyes went wide as saucers as everyone else looked above his head to see Professor McGonagall looking down at him. She seemed to be attempting anger and only accomplishing a sort of strained glee. "I understand that you will want to eat your dinner, however, I would like a moment of your and Ms. Granger's time?" The two of them looked up at their former professor, feeling flashbacks and a bit of panic as they nodded and began to get up from their chairs. Ron broke the silence.

"Hey wait a minute, doesn't that usually include me?"

"Not in this case Mr. Weasley, as they are not, in fact, in trouble."

"Oh, no fun then." The rest of the table laughed.

McGonagall lead them just outside the hall. "I am sorry to interrupt your celebrations."

Harry went right into what Hermione and Ron called War Hero Mode. "What is it, Professor?"

"Nothing is the matter, . I have two professors wishing to leave after next year, and I wanted to offer apprenticeships to the two of you." Hermione's jaw dropped. Harry seemed frozen. "Ms. Granger, I am sure you have many offers and I understand that you have been working for the Ministry and I'm sure are going to do great things, but you have always been talented at Transfiguration, and though Professor Molina has done a very fine job, you are one of the few others I would trust to teach my own subject, if you have any interest in teaching. I also need a new Head of Gryffindor, and she must have both a stern respect for the rules and a forgiving spirit, as we are not exactly known to be…rule-followers, now are we?" Hermione was shocked, glued into her place by the offer and the compliments.

McGonagall then faced Harry, her face softening a little at the boy for whom she had held a soft spot. "Mr. Potter, I understand that you are an Auror and are doing well for yourself, but I thought if you were interested in taking a break from fighting all the time, I do think you would be a very natural Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. And since there is no longer a curse on the position, it could be yours as long as you wish." She looked at her former pupils, whom she had apparently stunned and she smiled. "You are both to think it over and please get back to me in a week." They didn't move. "Go back to the party now." She had to command and gesture to the door before they did so. Professor McGonagall stayed in the hall and had a good laugh before re-joining the celebrations.

Harry and Hermione stopped before reaching the table where their family sat. They stared at each other. "I guess…" Hermione began uselessly.

"I mean I have to talk to Ginny but…"

"I honestly never thought…" Hermione continued, thinking aloud.

"I'm actually quite tired of fighting really when I think…"

"But what about S.P.E.W…"

"We could start with dark creatures…as early as first year…"

"Head of Gryffindor would be such a challenge…"

They turned to each other again. "Well?" Harry asked tentatively.

"I think we should do it." Hermione surprised herself with her the decisiveness in her tone. "I mean, obviously you have to talk to Ginny but-"

"She'll love it. She's so tired of me being on missions."

"You'd be such a great teacher Harry. I've always known it."

"What about you? You'll be brilliant. And you're not doing enough at the Ministry you've told me yourself."

"You know Malfoy will be Potions Master…"

Harry brushed this off. "Couldn't possibly be worse than Snape."

Then they both grinned widely at each other.

When they returned to their table they were greeted with a new face, a beaming Neville.

"Harry! Hermione!"

"Neville!" Hermione ran up to greet him, hugging him tightly. "We missed you!"

Harry gestured to the open seat next to Ginny at the table. "Good to see you mate, where've you been?"

Ginny put her hand comfortably on her friend's when he sat down. "I was traveling for Professor Sprout. She's taken me in as an apprentice and we needed a whole stock of things, for the greenhouse and the potions cabinet." Hermione glanced at Harry and they shared a secret smile.

"So you basically got to travel the world for a year?!" Ginny's face betrayed her envy and Neville nodded at her, his expression completely ignorant of any jealousy directed at him.

"Happy to be back though, honestly."

Hermione nodded knowingly. "And why is that Neville?" Her smile at him was reminiscent of Molly Weasley. Neville blushed bright red and looked down at the table in response. "Couldn't have anything to do with being close to the Leaky Cauldron, could it?"

His head jerked up and he seemed to forget there were other people at the table. "How do you know?!"

Hermione smiled kindly at him and reached for her drink. "Saw you there last week." Ginny gave Hermione a look out of the side of her eye that seemed to say what were you doing at a bar alone?

Always the slowest to put two and two together, Ron finally exclaimed, "Oy! Hannah Abbott!" He slapped Neville's arm. "Well done, mate!"

Neville smiled shyly before gathering his confidence by taking a drink of the firewhiskey Harry placed in front of him. "You'll all be invited of course. We're figuring the spring would be a nice time. She likes the wildflowers here."

Ginny's eyes widened. "You mean…?!" Neville smiled and nodded, turning to her seriously. "Meant to ask, Gin. Be my best man?" Ginny squealed and threw her arms around his neck.

"Not very best man-like, is she?" Ron pointed out. Ginny continued to squeeze him and squeak what might have been excited words or really just sounds until Neville coughed out that he couldn't quite breathe.

"Blimey" Harry seemed to have paled a little.

"You know, I think that makes you the first of us, Neville." Hermione didn't like that this unsettled her a little as she said it, but Neville's grin just grew wider. "I'm so happy for you."

"Well, I suppose we have even more cause to celebrate." Harry grinned at Hermione as he raised his glass. "To…what's next?" The table of Gryffindors nodded emphatically and clinked glasses.

FOUR YEARS LATER-2002

"Oh Harry, it's gorgeous."

"You don't think it's too soon?"

"Merlin Harry, it's only been what? Six years? You resisted the post-war rush anyway. Here zip me up, I can't get the last bit."

But Harry had grimaced and sat down, terrified, on her bed. Hermione set her hand on his shoulder. "She's been in love with you for over a decade, she wants to have your babies, you live together, and Molly's been asking about this for a year now. It's about time you caught up."

He breathed out, hard. "Right. Thanks H."

"When are you asking her then?" Hermione started fidgeting with Harry's bowtie and dress robes, finally resorting to her wand to iron out the wrinkles he'd made by pacing around her professor's flat.

Harry bit his lower lip. "Tonight. I think. If I can manage. I want to do it here."

Hermione raised her eyebrow, then quickly resisted questioning his choice. He was nervous enough. "That's a lovely idea, Harry. Maybe you could take her out by the lake, where you two used to 'walk' in sixth year?" Harry just nodded like a man who belonged in a padded cell. "HARRY." Hermione pulled at his lapels. "FOCUS. If you're going to do it tonight, and you don't want the whole world watching, you need a plan." He barely looked up at her. "YOU ARE GOOD AT THIS YOU CAN PLAN THINGS." He nodded and she nodded with him, encouragingly. "GO PLAN." Harry stumbled as he left the room, muttering to himself.

Hermione sighed as she looked at the Great Hall, set up but empty. It was calming to know it would be full of happy wizards and witches of all ages, some wearier and more wounded than others, many healing and moving on to happy lives they hadn't been able to imagine only four years ago. The Hall really was beautifully done, with the same decorations every year for the Anniversary Ball. The floating candles still reminded her of her own sorting ceremony, and the many she had seen in years since, and the simple tables simply hinting at the Hogwarts houses with their neutral colors made her grateful for McGonagall's classic style. It was just enough to contrast how the people themselves changed over the years, while the castle, and the ball, remained ever-constant. Hermione was in the middle of her dreamy, nostalgic thoughts when she was interrupted by a smooth, coy voice.

"My, my Granger. Are we getting a show with dinner tonight then?"

Hermione whipped around and looked at him as though he had no right to be where he was, when he was probably supposed to be here early to greet guests and direct students. "What do you want Malfoy?"

"I only wondered if the low back look was in season or if you were making some sort of display out of desperation."

Hermione gasped. "My zipper. Stupid Harry!" She began moving one arm, then the other behind her head, attempting to get the last few inches she remembered had been missing, only to find the zipper had fallen even lower. Much too low, really.

Malfoy's warm hand on her back interrupted her struggle. "Stop. You'll never get it thrashing around like that." He moved her hair out of the way, brushing along the back of her neck and giving her goosebumps. Using one hand on her ribs to anchor the fabric, he zipped it up, setting her hair back in place. He then removed his hands and leaned down into her neck. She could feel his breath in the spot below her right ear. Exactly the place she placed the perfume she wore for special occasions. "Rather a shame really. I liked it better before."

Hermione whipped around and put her arms out onto his chest angrily. "Malfoy. Thank you for alerting me to that issue and for helping me. But do not cross lines that you will regret crossing. You hear me?"

He nodded, but smirked. "You going to hit me again Granger? Bit immature, don't you think?"

She had him up against a wall and he wasn't fighting her. She leaned in to him. Her heart was beating too fast for her liking. "You. Wish." His eyebrows rose high with surprise and maybe a little interest, she thought. She removed her hands, cooling down the situation immediately. "Malfoy, we are now co-workers. We can hate each other and make each other's lives more difficult, which worked out so well last time, or we can work together. Either way, you keep your hands to yourself." With that, she walked purposefully into the Great Hall and searched for something that needed fixing or setting up.

"Hermione, why do you keep looking at Draco?"

Hermione nearly jumped out of her skin. She had been sipping a pumpkin juice, quietly watching Harry fidget nervously with his napkin, Ginny stare worryingly at him, and Ron dance with his date, someone from the Ministry whom she didn't know, when Luna had leaned in to whisper to her.

"Merlin, Luna you scared me! I wasn't…I wasn't looking at anyone. I was watching…" she gestured at her hapless friends.

Luna shrugged. "Okay. He does seem much nicer really, talked to me about the Asian Dragon Hair that Rolf and I found in Thailand." Hermione glanced at Luna's strange boyfriend, who was picking apart his food, identifying otherwise unremarkable ingredients as very important and fascinating. She didn't begin to understand either of them, really.

Hermione tried to shake off Luna's strangeness and leaned over to Harry. "Harry. Ron is dancing, everyone is busy. Go to the lake, take the ring, do it now." Harry turned to her with alarm, his eyes large saucers of fear. She nodded at him and slowly pronounced, "Now." Harry nodded back but did nothing. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Hey Gin," she loudly whispered to Ginny who sat on his other side, a single hand inefficiently blocking Harry from her words- "Harry looks kind of ill, don't you think? Maybe you should take him outside, get some air in him?"

Ginny looked almost relieved to be asked to take care of the man and it momentarily made Hermione wonder how in the world the two of them would survive. "Good idea." Harry let himself be pulled up by Ginny, who began rubbing his arms and whispering to him as she led him outside.

Hermione got up, excusing herself that she needed something to drink, never mind that her cup was full of pumpkin juice. She needed something stronger. Firewhiskey in hand, Hermione found a spot in the shadows to watch the dancers, leaning on one of the columns that separated the dance floor from the rest of the ball. It was late, and students younger than sixth year and most families or parents who had children at home had left, including Bill and Fleur. "The lonely and the learning" her mum had called the stragglers at any wedding they had attended. "Don't worry darling, we're not missing much by leaving now. It'll only be the lonely and the learning." Hermione had never asked what they were learning. She missed her parents tonight, which didn't happen too often. They hadn't been able to un-Obliviate them, she had done too good a job on the spell, apparently. But she had been able to use muggle explanations on them. "Amnesia" she had told them, and they'd seen enough movies to understand that premise. They loved her as much as they could, given that they didn't remember raising her. And she loved them as much as she could, given that they could never understand that she lived in a different world and had survived a war they would never learn about.

"Lonely, Granger?"

Hermione jumped at Malfoy's voice. "You really shouldn't sneak up on people Malfoy."

"I wasn't. You just weren't paying attention. It's really a miracle you lot won any battles."

Hermione rolled her neck from side to side and sipped her whiskey. "Really, Malfoy. It's late, do we have to fight right now?"

Malfoy shook his head rather seriously. "No desire to." He leaned against the other side of her column. "Only you took my favorite brooding spot."

Hermione chucked despite herself. "Yes, well I suppose you may not be the only one in need of a brood." There was no answer, so she continued. "You know, I usually like this ball. Tonight just feels off."

"Couldn't have anything to do with the Weasel's date, could it?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, no. I'm rather used to that. Doesn't bother me. Maybe it should" she began as she realized the alcohol was having its usual self-reflective effect- "but it doesn't."

"Anything to do with Potter's imminent engagement?"

Hermione whipped her head around the column to glare at him. "How do you know about THAT?"

Malfoy shrugged and gave a little laugh. "I was talking to Loony earlier, she guessed he was either going to propose or die from a stroke tonight. Apparently, she was right."

Hermione giggled. "He was rather sweaty." She sighed. "No, I'm happy for him. I don't…" She tried to think very seriously if she wanted to confide in Malfoy, but her tongue made the choice for her. "I don't mind being alone, really. I chose it, honestly. Could've had Ron and kids and a whole family ready-made." She looked over, catching Malfoy's mimicking of getting sick. "I like it-being alone-quite a lot, really. But…"

"Doesn't mean it doesn't suck occasionally, does it?"

Hermione's silence was answer enough. She took another sip, then set her drink down, smoothing over her robes and preparing herself to go wish Harry and Ginny the happiest of engagements.

Yay! We're getting more Draco! I do adore him. Also, if you would be interested in reading more queer Parvati (with Dramione as well, obviously) let me know! Thanks for the reviews, they make my whole day!