After the End

Hermione woke up, heavy lidded. Her eyes hurt, they were swollen and blurry.

"Mione?" She looked up to see Harry. His face was worried and there were burn marks and wounds all over his skin. He saw her horrified expression and smiled.

"There was a bit of a battle after you fainted. The death eaters minus Voldemort against Dumbledore, Ron, and I. Oh, and this other person, someone we hadn't met before. He actually wanted to meet you, he wouldn't give us his name though. Do you think you're up to it?"

"Uh, sure." Hermione raised herself slowly into a sitting position. She noticed that she was in Hogwarts and smiled. She had missed her old life before; Harry, Ron, Hogwarts. She was glad she had it back, no matter how much she missed Tom.

"Okay," Harry said and waved his hand to Ron who was standing by the door. Ron opened it begrudgingly and a version of Tom was behind it.

Hermione gasped, "It's my son!" Although she had no idea how he had survived through last – or that night many years ago, she was unquestionably glad to see him.

"Um, yes how did you know?" He looked confused. He was handsome though, dark like Tom but there was warmness in his eyes. He looked kind despite his resemblance to his father.

"I don't know, mother's intuition, I guess?" She looked past him to Harry whose mouth was hanging open and Ron whose face was red.

"Yes, well, my name is Jack."

"Jack, really? Why?" she asked remembering her friend.

"What a stupid thing to ask, Mione." Ron came next to her and sat down territorially, "Why did your parents name you Hermione?" She rolled her eyes.

"Well," Jack said oddly, looking at Ron and frowning, "My father's best friend was Jack. But you knew that didn't you?"

"Yes, I just wondered if he had actually honored our friend that way."

"So he was your friend as well?"

"Yes, he was. He was so kind." Hermione smiled at her son, however weird it was that he was still alive. "A Gryffindor, you know like me."

"Yes I was too, at first anyway." He smiled, remembering something.

"What do you mean?" Hermione smiled questioningly.

"Well, when my father found out, it was … changed."

"Can that even happen?" Hermione asked stupidly; it was Tom of course, he could do anything.

"Apparently, my father is very demanding after all."

"Ah, yes." Came an old, wise, familiar voice. "I remember Mr. Granger."

"Dumbledore!" Hermione smiled from the bed she was laying in. "Are you okay? I heard you were in the fight. Wait, Granger? What?"

"Well we couldn't very well use the name Riddle could we? Not with all the animosity going on in this school." Dumbledore smiled, his eyes wrinkling. "And yes, Miss Granger, I am fine. The fight was actually quite refreshing. The final battle."

"Refreshing, huh?" Harry mused from the corner, "I wouldn't agree necessarily, Professor. But anyway, I'm confused."

"About what, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore stroked his rather long white beard.

"About how Hermione got pregnant and had a son without any of us knowing about it."

"Well, Mr. Potter, I sent Hermione back in time."

"To what, have Voldemort's kid? Because I don't see how that helped anything."

"Tom, Harry," Hermione yelled from her bed, "He wasn't Voldemort then, at least not to me."

"Okay, Tom's kid."

"Well, Mr. Potter that wasn't the intended outcome of her travel." Dumbledore smiled knowingly.

"Then what was?"

"Well I was hoping that she would either kill him or destroy his horcruxes."

"Sorry," Hermione said, blushing.

"That's quite alright, you did change something."

"What's that?" She asked curiously.

Just then, two voices drifted through the corridor.

"Where is she?" It was a woman, her voice sounded familiar, warm almost and kind.

"Hermione!"

"Mum, Dad?" Hermione was out of her bed in a minute and hugging her mother and father. She hadn't seen them in years, and she'd missed them so much. She looked past her parents to Ron and Harry's confused expression.

"What's the big deal; you saw them yesterday at Harry's parents' house." Ron said annoyingly.

"Wait, your parents are alive too, Harry?" She asked, excitedly, only a little of the former pain left inside her.

"Uh, yeah, last time I checked."

"Then why were you searching for the horcrux, why did you battle the death eaters when you didn't have to?" She asked, confused; he had never been one for unnecessary violence.

"Because they're bad?" He questioned, "Hermione, you know why, I've been in the Order for a long time. It's my duty." He looked at Dumbledore, "What's her problem?"

"Things have changed a lot for her." He smiled warmly, knowing all just like he usually did.

"So how did any of what I did change their futures?" Hermione asked.

"Well, after you disappeared, he went looking for you. He was looking for you the day that he had killed Harry's parents before, so he didn't kill them. The same thing happened with your parents; he was too busy looking for you to bother with them."

Hermione smiled lightly glad that they were all alive, but sad that Tom had spent so long looking for her. She felt a deep pain, that she knew he had felt many years ago when she had disappeared.

But really, it was okay, it was all worth it because now she could live her life with her son and parents, her friends and their parents. Everybody won, except maybe Tom, but he had died many years ago, probably even before Hermione had met him. She wasn't even that her presence would have stopped him from killing people. It was a sad thing, a sad fate for Tom because he could have been happy. But he chose not to, he chose to let his anger control him, the thought of revenge take over his life. And control him it did. His whole life was governed by that hate and rage.

However, Hermione knew that she had helped him through at least one stage in his life. She had taught him love, if only for a moment, and that was reward enough for all her pain.

A/N: Alright I thought I would give Hermione a happy ending, after all she deserves it. So review!