A/N: Wow. I've been MIA for a while now. So sorry, you guys. I've had some questions about whether or not I intended to finish this story, and I'd like to answer with an emphatic YES. I know exactly how this story is going to play out and end; I just need to get it written out so you guys can know, too. :) I'd really like to have this story FINISHED finally, so I can lose my reputation as the-girl-who-starts-stories-and-never-finishes-them. Sorry the wait has been so long on this one, y'all, but here you go. Enjoy! Is anyone even still out there?

As it turned out, Harry and Ron didn't get the chance to drag Hermione out of her apartment kicking and screaming after all. When no amount of knocking or yelling through her door produced an answer, Ron and Harry took themselves to the front desk. The wizened old desk clerk looked genuinely surprised to see them.

"Miss Granger, you say? Why, she's been gone almost a week now."

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" Ron spluttered, going red round the ears. "How can she have gone?"

"She moved out, young sir," the clerk replied slowly, as if Ron were mentally challenged in some way. "Didn't she tell ya?"

"Er," stammered Harry, "not exactly. Did she say where she was going?"

The clerk shook his head. "Didn't say much of anything, that one. Sent a note. Next day she was gone."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, astonished. The only thing left to do was pick their jaws up off the floor, thank the desk clerk for his help (or lack thereof), and leave the way they'd come.

Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.

Hermione glanced over to the window of her bedroom. A large, tawny owl was sitting on the sill, tapping the glass importantly. She crossed the room and let up the glass, and the bird soared imperiously into the room, landing gracefully on the foot of Hermione's bed. Tied to its leg was an official-looking envelope.

Hermione hurried to untie it, eager to hear Newt Scamander's opinion of the new proposal she had sent to him yesterday. She had been sending her work to the office by owl for two weeks now, and she had to admit, she almost preferred it this way.

She didn't have to face the pitying glances from the other girls on her floor, or hear them whisper among themselves when she left her office. It had almost been too much to bear; how was she ever going to get over this whole mess if no one would let her forget it?

A sudden noise from the window made her stop short of opening the thick envelope in her hand. She spun round, a lump sticking firmly in her throat when she saw a second owl perched on the windowsill, as if waiting to be invited in.

"Hedwig," Hermione gasped, her hand at her heart. "I didn't see you there…well of course I was distracted…I've been quite busy lately, you know…work has been…well…oh listen to me, blathering on to an owl… no offense, Hedwig, I just meant…well…what have you got there?" she finished, rather nervously eyeing the letter tied to the snowy owl's own leg.

Hedwig drew herself up imperiously and held out her leg rather gingerly, as though unwilling to allow Hermione to touch her. Hermione's heart plummeted into her stomach and she reached instead for a small tin of owl treats she kept nearby for when the owls from the Ministry came with her work; turning back to Hedwig, she smiled her warmest smile and offered the treat to her.

Hedwig tilted her head almost completely upside down and studied Hermione for a moment, then gave a small hoo and clamped her beak gently on the treat, being careful to avoid Hermione's fingers. Hermione sighed with relief and stroked the bird's soft feathers; they were friends again.

"If only it were going to be that easy with them," she sighed, untying the letter at last and watching Hedwig and the Ministry owl swoop back off through the early morning sky. She took a deep, calming breath and unrolled the letter.

Hermione,

You're lucky we didn't send a Howler.

Where have you been? Why didn't you let us know you were moving back home? Do you have any idea how worried we've been about you?

It's one thing to shut out the rest of the world, but we're supposed to be your best friends.

We miss you. Ron and I will be in London today during our lunch breaks. It'd be great to see you there, too.

Harry

Hermione let out the breath she'd been holding.

Harry was right. It was one thing to shut out the rest of the world, but quite another to become a recluse who never even saw her best friends anymore.

She made up her mind to meet them for lunch. She was going to start living again.

Even if it killed her.

Draco stood before the floor-length looking glass, trying to remember how to breathe.

He tugged at the bow tie around his neck, feeling as if all the air in the room had been sucked out.

Today was the big day. Wedding bells and all of that.

He couldn't back out now; it was far too late for cold feet.

Dum dum da dum.

"Do you think she'll come?" Ron asked, looking nervously around the Leaky Cauldron.

"She isn't going to appear out of thin air, Ron, you can relax," Harry replied. Then he stopped short, and laughed right out loud. "Well, technically, she could, but Hermione doesn't really like Apparition." Ron glared at him, obviously not amused. "Come on, lighten up. She'll be here."

"You don't know that," grumbled Ron, picking at the hem of his robe.

"We've done all we can do," Harry sighed, leaning back in his chair. "All we can do now is wait."

Hermione checked her reflection in the small mirror in her room at her parents' house.

She had moved back in with her parents - temporarily - until she could find a suitable place in Muggle London as she had planned. There was no way she was getting another apartment in wizarding London; there was just too much of a chance she would run into…well, certain people.

Living at home wasn't so bad, she reasoned with herself. There just wasn't any point of keeping the old place. There were too many memories associated with it, and she wasn't about to sit around in the dark all day and let those memories kill her. She had to live.

There was no point in being pathetic. She had been overreacting to this whole situation; relationships ended all the time.

It was time to come out of the dark.

This lunch with Harry and Ron would be just the thing to get the ball rolling in her life again.

In an attempt to jump start her new attitude, Hermione decided to take a bus to the Leaky Cauldron. Being outside and in the sunshine would do her a world of good. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd been outside during the day, and that, she thought with a frown creasing her forehead, was never a good sign.

Stepping out into the bright sunshine was like being reborn. It was a lovely day, and she took her jacket off to let the sun warm her skin. Her mood skyrocketed.

On the bus, she barely paid attention to the stops as she gazed out the window at the clear blue sky; it seemed to stretch on forever in every direction, punctuated here and there with a soaring bird or puffy white cloud.

" - the Malfoy wedding, yes that's what I was - "

Hermione was jolted suddenly back to Earth - she felt as if the air in her lungs had disappeared. At first she was sure she must have misheard the speaker; she wasn't, after all, listening to the conversation properly - they could have been talking about anything, and her strained subconscious could have fabricated -

" - this afternoon. That's what I said, after what happened between him and Hermione Granger earlier this year, I would never have thought he'd - "

Now she couldn't blame it on her strained subconscious anymore. She was certain she'd heard properly this time; she quickly turned her face to the window so she wouldn't be recognized and she could listen further -

"But here it is, plain as day, front page of the Prophet. This afternoon, three o'clock, the Enchanted hotel. I honestly didn't think he was up to it, but as long as he's happy. And he does look extremely happy, doesn't he? Astoria is so beautiful, and she'll make a proper Malfoy bride - "

Hermione could listen no more. She fished in her bag for her Christmas present from her parents this year - an mp3 player - and put the ear buds in her ears, drowning out the conversation of the two women in the seat behind her.

When they exited the bus at the next top, Hermione couldn't stop herself from glancing into their empty seat to see if they'd left the paper. They hadn't.

Deep breaths.

But she couldn't stop her brain from whirring into overdrive at this news.

Draco was getting married. To Astoria Greengrass. This afternoon.