A.N: I've had an idea for this epilogue since the middle of the fic, but it's taken me such a long time to finally gather the courage to let this one go. I'd just like to thank any readers who have stuck with me thus far, and again, I am sorry at how slow I am to update. I hope this epilogue gives a chance for new readers to enter my story and please enjoy and leave a review!
The room went silent as everyone held their breath at once. Tiny footsteps patted on a wooden floor. The keys of the piano began its first notes. The doors opened. One hundred and thirty two faces turned to look. One hundred and thirty two breaths were let out at once.
Hermione lifted her chin and took a tentative step. The isle tunneled forward and for a brief second she felt sick. And then she saw him. His face, no longer pale and sick, but bright and alive. His smile, no longer weak and fragile, but beaming and enticing. Her eyes locked with his and her stomach floated to the floor. She took another step. Her father tightened his grip on her arm and she forced herself to look away and look up at him. The pride in his face was enough to bring a bubble of laughter to her throat, and they shared a smile they've shared all her life.
Another step and she looked around at the congregation. Bright pastel purples, blues and pinks littered the rows of faces, matching the flowers surrounding them. Her gaze turned again to the front of church, where her attention was filled with a small boy, dressed in a fitted suit with a tiny tie, running up towards her. Hermione smiled so wide as the boy called out to her, the words inaudible under the sound of the piano. Ginny laughed behind her as her son ran up the isle, stealing the eyes of the assembly. Hermione took another stride closer to the boy and bent down to catch him as he ran into her arms, nuzzling her nose into his soft, jet black hair. She looked up and caught Draco Malfoy with a tear running down his cheek. She let go of the boy and stood up, wanting anything to be able to run down this stupidly long isle and kiss the stupid Slytherin and marry him. Forever.
She took a deep breath and took her father's arm again, regaining herself and the feelings in her organs as everything collapsed in on itself.
By the time she allowed herself to exhale, she was close enough to see the tiny freckle just to the side of Draco's right eye. She reached out and cupped his cheek and brushed it gently, letting go of her father and holding tightly onto Draco with two hands.
The smell of flowers and sound of music led them out of the church, while the feeling of happiness followed them all the way to the ball.
The bride and groom conducted the walk from the church to the castle hand in hand, as a sea of guests gathered around them, scattering around the grass field in their own worlds under the heat of the summer's day.
"I love you." Draco stated aloud, looking down at his wife. The very idea of the title exciting him all the way down to his toes.
"I love you also." Hermione told him, looking back up at him, their eyes meeting and sharing a thousand secrets.
"I'm so happy," he smiled, making her gaze switch to his lips, "I love yo-" his repeated truth interrupted as she kissed him.
"I know you do." She told him as she pulled away, watching his cheeks blush.
He held tighter onto her hand before taking the back of her dress and holding it against the wind, off from the floor.
"You look beautiful." He whispered, almost to himself, although he wanted her to know.
Hermione's smile widened but she did not reply, as she walked carefully across the field to their destination.
Ginny and Harry where a little far forward from them, Harry chasing after his two-year-old son who just couldn't stand still, Ginny laughing at the pair of them. Something in Hermione longed for her own eyes to be the woman's, in her position watching Draco and her own child…the thought was so enticing her whole body ached for the longing. Hermione nuzzled into Draco's shoulder as Ron came up behind them, slightly out of breath, the tips of his ears pink.
"I just wanted to say, 'Mione, that you look breathtaking-and Draco, you don't look too bad yourself."
"Why, thankyou," Draco laughed, as Ron reached up and straightened his tie. "All ready for your staring roll?"
"Where is your great-aunt sitting again 'Mione?" Ron asked, eyes suddenly wide.
"Oh my God." Hermione's own expression matched Ron's as stress absorbed her, before Ron cracked up with a laugh.
"No, I know, don't worry, everything's sorted. Usher Weasley is at your service." He did a bow, smirked at them both, and ran towards his sister.
"Why did we ask him again?" Draco asked out loud as the last two seconds fitted into place.
"Because Harry was best man, and we can't leave him out," Hermione winked at Draco, before kissing him gently.
The sun was soon blocked by the shadow of the large castle looming high above them, and the perfect setting to the perfect day illuminated Hermione's insides as she looked up at the ancient building.
"Hermione?" A little girl suddenly came up at Hermione's waist, looking up at the woman in awe
"Yes, Sally?" Hermione asked, stooping slightly to look in the bright eyesof the young girl.
"Can I have your flowers?" She asked shyly, twirling the hem of her yellow dress in her fingertips.
Hermione smiled brightly and handed the girl the bouquet .
"Thankyou," she whispered softly, but before she had a chance to turn away and show off her trade, Draco bent down and picked the brightest yellow flower from the girls hands, and pushed the stem into her blonde hair, causing the girl to blush.
"Beautiful." Hermione told her, rubbing the top of Draco's back as he stood up again.
Sally looked up at the pair as they kissed softly,
"One day, when I'm a lady, I hope to marry a man like you Draco." Sally beamed, before turning and stepping into the entrance hall of the castle.
"You're a sweetheart." Hermione told her husband, pride rising in her chest.
"What can I say, I have a way with the ladies." He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, as they crossed the boundary and entered through the doors.
The ball room was situated in the heart of the castle, with a staircase leading up to sitting rooms along the hallways above them, overlooked by balconies where the guests danced beneath you in a swirl of colours. Drapes hung around the walls bringing a costume to the old room. Tables lined the sides of the dance-floor, with flowers made from book pages over spilling from vases. Small candles held in jam jars created shadows small gift pouches placed in front of every chair.
The reception began as soon as a waiter handed out the first glass of champagne from a silver tray, adorned with a charm to duplicate every drink. The guests swirled around the open dance-floor, before taking to their seats, directed by a proud Ron.
The food had been ate and the cake cut, and the time had come for the speeches. Hermione's nerves flung to her throat as Draco stood up, a dirty piece of folded paper held tightly in his grasp.
He smiled out at the audience. He gave a tentative smile, a small blush etching colour to his cheeks.
"I-" He began, stopped, and looked up at the ceiling. He breathed heavily in and out twice. A woman coughed. He opened the sheet of paper. He could feel Harry's eyes bearing into him from his side. He smiled again and looked down at the words.
"I'm writing this as I look out onto your back garden-our back garden. The birds are nesting in their little box and taking the seeds in their tiny beaks and then flying off again in the opposite direction, your hospitality forgotten as they flap their wings and move with the wind. I hope you never think I was going to do that; I hope you never thought I would use you to help me-get better and then move on. I never wanted to do that but I guess I thought I would. If I hadn't fallen in love with you all over again, I probably would have. I was a coward before you, Hermione Ganger. I was a coward who didn't know what a bus was and you saved me. You saved me from myself." Draco looks up from the page and into Hermione's eyes, getting lost in them for the longest of moments before looking back at his written words. "I sip my tea and take a bite of my biscuit-Jammy Dodger, of course. You invited me into my home despite knowing nothing about me, and if your kindness was not so great, I know I would have been out on my own once more. But I knew you'd give me a chance. I knew, I know, that despite everything you might have written about me in your books, that your heart would listen and take care of even a cockroach like me. And I'm glad I was right. Because as soon as I knew I was in trouble, your name was the first on my lips as a port of call-you were my first last resort.
If things had been different, if we could write our own stories, I would have been with you from the very beginning. But, as I said, I was a coward.
Now, I'm just thankful that we have been written to cross paths once again-and find what it really means to be in love"
"Not many people can say their wife saved their life, but I am one of the lucky few. I would never have guessed, let alone suspected that you would have gone to such great lengths for me. I don't know if I would have done the same-and any of you who know the story, I think you'd know why. I've put down my mug, half finished by now cold, and I head upstairs. I can hear you in the bathroom, singing softly to yourself a tune that hums out from your stereo in the next room. I am so filled with love in this moment, I cannot help but write it down. It seems mad to me that when I will next see these words, speaking them out loud, that I will be speaking them to the guests at our wedding day-not alone in our hallway, leaning on the banister as a table. In the two years we have shared together, such a lifetime has passed. You taught me to smile, and I found a reason other than myself to keep on living, fighting, breathing. Thankyou for not saying for saving my life. Thankyou for being my life."
He looked down at her and her beauty filled him with joy and love and every amazing emotion he was able to feel in one split second. He looked at his spectators and no longer felt judged. He sat down and placed his lips on hers and the whole room erupted with applause. He pulled away and opened his eyes, and swam into her eyes.