Chapter 35
Draco could see the walls begin to fall down as large cracks formed above him in the ceiling. Thanks to Smith's spell, the Ministry of Magic was literally falling apart by the seams. If his goal had been to demolish the entire building and literally start his new civilizations from scratch, then it would seem as if he was going to succeed.
Hermione and the others had already gotten out of the building successfully by apparating out. The only problem was that Zacharias Smith was still lying stunned on the other side of the room.
Draco never liked the bloke when they were at school. He had all the arrogance a Slytherin could have, but none of the grace or pride they did. He would often boast about his life and his accomplishments with nothing to back it. And clearly it seemed as if nothing had changed.
The easy thing would be to simply leave him here. The wanker deserved it for everything he had put the country through and everything he still could. But despite how easy it would be, Draco couldn't, within good conscious, leave him here to die.
As he saw the former Hufflepuff begin to stir, he tried to rush over to where the man lay. There were large chunks of the roof slowly falling out in front of him, and it made it difficult to see. The dust was beginning to fill the room, clouding his vision further.
Draco pushed forward, using his wand to direct blocks away from him so he wasn't crushed, but as he moved closer, it began harder to stop the amount of stone and rubble coming down onto him.
"Wake up, Smith!" Draco shouted, trying to rouse the man from the stunning spell that had initially knocked him out. He maneuvered around a large rock which nearly fell on top of him, before ducking as a stunning spell came his way. "What are you doing, you idiot?! I'm trying to help you."
"I don't need your help!" He heard Smith yell out as he struggled to get onto his feet. He cast a wandless charm at Draco, and he simply ducked to avoid being hit.
Draco heard a cracking sound, and he looked up in surprise to see a large chunk of rock begin to come down towards him. He cast a quick spell to hold the rock in place so he was not instantly crushed.
"It doesn't have to end like this," Draco shouted out to Smith, "We can both make it out of this alive. Just come here and we'll apparate out together! Don't be an arse." The size of the crack had extended to just a little over where Smith was standing, and Draco extended his spell to hold those falling stones as well.
"I told you," Smith said through gritted teeth. "I don't need your help, Malfoy. Besides maybe I don't want your help. Maybe I still want you dead."
He didn't have time to react as he was hit straight in the chest with a stinging charm. Draco fell to the ground, releasing the spell that was holding the remainder of the ceiling up above him. He watched in horror as the stones began to fall towards him. Closing his eyes, he gripped his wand, as he began to think exactly of where he wanted to go. Hopefully, it wasn't too late.
"No!" Hermione screamed out as she saw the Ministry fall before her. There were hundreds of people gathered around the building; Aurors, remaining Vetusta, Order Members, and other bystanders who had come out to see what had happened. Unfortunately for her, none of them were Draco. She let out a sob, and Harry quickly gathered her into his arms.
She buried her face into his chest as she cried, "He can't be gone," she whimpered. "He was right there! He was fine when I left! Oh Merlin, I shouldn't have left him there! I should have made sure that he was fine before leaving. I should have made sure that he was in one piece. I killed him, didn't I?"
"Hermione," Harry said in a soothing voice, but she didn't listen.
"It's all my fault! He's stuck in there because of me! He's dead because of me," she choked out. "Merlin, he's gone. And I never even got to tell him how much I love him."
"I love you too, Granger," she heard a rough voice say. She felt her heart stop beating as she removed her face from Harry's chest enough to see Draco standing there, relatively in one piece. His face was dirty and he had cuts all over his body, but he was alive.
Hermione felt tears running down her face as she flung herself into Draco's arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tightly against her. She could feel his surprise, but he quickly scooped her up and held her close.
"I'm okay, Hermione," Draco told her tenderly, as he rubbed her back. "I promise. I made it out of there."
"What took you so long?" she questioned, feeling a slight flush of anger at the fact that he literally chose to stay in the building until the last minute.
"I was trying to get Smith out of there alive," he explained. "But the wanker cursed me when I was holding the last bit of ceiling up above us. He got crushed by it; the idiot didn't even know that by hexing me, he caused his own death. I apparated out before the rocks fell on me."
"How come the men I love all have hero complexes," she huffed out. "You're a Slytherin," she poked his chest, "You're supposed to worry about saving your own hide! Not trying to save everyone else! I swear I don't even know what I'm going to do with-"
She didn't finish her sentence as Draco's lips crashed down upon hers. He was kissing her roughly, and she felt herself relax into it. She moved her own lips against his, letting out a small moan of contentment against him.
"Took the two of you long enough," she heard Ron comment from behind him. She heard him shout out in pain as Hermione saw Pansy smacked his shoulder from the corner of her eyes.
"He does have a point, Granger," Blaise said teasingly. "Literally everyone knew the two of you cared about each other but the two of you."
She flushed in embarrassment, but simply turned to rest her head against Draco's shoulder. Their fingers were intertwined and he had a wide grin on his stupid face.
"I should go to the hospital," Hermione murmured to the group, "They could use all the healers they could get at the moment. I'm sure a good amount of people got injured today, especially you lot."
Draco looked almost reluctant to release her, but he simply pressed his lips to hers one last time. "I suppose Harry, Ron, and I should help round up the remainder of the Vetusta and bring them in for questioning. It's going to be a long night, isn't it?"
"Sucks for you lot," Blaise smirked, "English soil with English participants means that I don't have to do a thing."
"But the paperwork involved for aiding a different country's Auror force," Theo reminded him. "Now Pansy and I on the other hand are free to go."
Hermione simply smiled at the group. Despite having a lot of work to do both today, and in the future to help the country heal from this, it was finally over. They had managed to stop the events of the future from coming to pass.
"The children!" Hermione shouted out, startling everyone, "If we stopped the events of the future from coming to pass, then the children were never born. At least not that version of them! Are they okay? What if something happened to them as a result for changing the future as they knew it from coming to pass?"
Pansy looked slightly confused, but the others looked terrified. She apparated immediately to Grimmauld Place, needing to know if her baby was still okay. She might have known that there was always the chance that something could happen to them if they succeeded in stopping Smith, but she had grown so attached to the boys and she couldn't stand the thought of anything happening to them.
As she landed in the kitchen, she let out a sigh of relief as Ginny and the boys were sitting at the table eating sandwiches. Ginny looked relieved to see her, and the others as they followed behind her.
"Mummy!" Scorpius let out a shout of relief. He ran from the table and ran towards her. She scooped him up in her arms, and as Draco came up behind her, he placed a kiss on their son's head.
"My sweet child," Hermione said with a grin. She knew how hard all of this had been on her son, and she was relieved to be able to know that her son was still with them and that nothing would happen to them if she could help it. Nothing, and she meant nothing, would be able to take her child way from her, if Hermione Granger could help it.
Harry smiled as he kissed Ginny and James. He also rested his hand on his wife's barely showing stomach.
"Who did we lose?" Ginny asked softly, and Harry looked at the ground. Hermione felt bad for her friends; it had devastated her to learn of the loss of Percy, so how would Ginny take the loss of her brother?
"Percy," Ron choked out, and Hermione rubbed his arm. "I'm so sorry, Ginny. He's gone."
"No!" Ginny shouted out, "Please, no. Tell me he's not gone, Harry. Tell me he's okay. I can't lose another brother. Oh Godric, how will we tell Mum? It's going to kill her. She barely survived losing Fred. I don't know if she can handle losing Percy too."
Ron hugged his sister, as Harry looked lost. Her friend had dealt with so much loss in his life and she genuinely hoped for his sake that he would never have to lose anyone else. That none of them would have to. They were barely in their early twenties, and they had lost so many people who were close to them.
As Theo finished filling Pansy in, she looked at them with amazement. The woman who had fought by them seemed baffled at first, but Hermione knew that the explanation helped fit pieces into the story which Pansy had been lacking.
"Granger, I knew you were brilliant in school, but to come up with a way to send the children back in time? I have to admit, that is rather amazing," the raven haired woman complimented her.
Hermione blushed slightly at that, and Draco wrapped his arm around her waist, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"We'll have to tell the world the truth," Hermione said softly, "We can't keep the children a secret forever, not matter how much I'd like to keep them safe. There are going to be people out there who don't understand, and there are going to be people out there who think we should send them back. but the only way we can tell the world the entire truth about what happened to stop it from happening again would be to tell them what we saw in those memories and the truth about Zacharias Smith."
Harry nodded grimly, "I know. And telling the press is going to put the children right back in the spotlight. It was the one thing I wanted for my kids; for them to be able to grow up with a relatively normal upbringing. But I guess that's gone now."
"We'll keep them safe," Ginny assured her husband.
Hermione knew the reasoning for Harry's desire to protect the kids. He had gone eleven years thinking he was a nobody, and that he didn't matter, then all of a sudden he was thrown into a world where everyone knew who he was. And as much as people like the Weasley's tried to help him, he still was alone in facing it all. He had no family to shelter him from the press or rumours from his peers. But that would be one thing their children would never know.
She leaned into Draco, and despite Scorpius starting to grow heavy, she didn't want to put him down. So she held her son closer to her chest. Despite how much she had grown to care for her son, she felt grateful that she could fully appreciate him without the looming fate that hung over their heads.
"I love you," Draco whispered into her ear.
She was about to respond, when she heard the floo activate. She turned to face it, as she saw Luna and Neville stumble out of it, looking as if they had taken a turn for the worse.
"Luna!" Ron exclaimed, as he rushed over to her and pulled her into a kiss. "Thank Merlin! I've been worrying about where you were, but I didn't want to leave Hugo."
"Sorry," Neville told them, "We were trying to get out as many people as we could before the building came down. And when we didn't see you outside the Ministry, we figured you would be here."
"We really should help them," Hermione said, feeling guilty that she got distracted from her initial goal, "I just really wanted to make sure the children were alright."
"It's what makes you a good mother," Draco reassured her. "The fact that you immediately think about the kids to make sure they're alright. Being a mother comes naturally to you, even though it's only been a short time"
She smiled softly, as she leaned up to kiss him again. She couldn't explain the euphoria she felt after finally admitting her feelings for him, but it was as if she finally felt whole. Like every other relationship she had in the past had been some sort of trial run for this.
"And on that note, I think we should head out," Harry announced, as he kissed Ginny softly on the lips. "I'll send a note to the Prophet, telling them that we'll give a full press conference in the morning. That way we can give the world some time to recover, and people to be with their loved ones. We'll send out a quick memo on Lee's channel so people know it's safe. Draco, we basically have our work cut out for us. Ron, I think you should go to the Burrow for a bit, and take Ginny and the kids with you."
She was silent as she took in Lee's death. There were so many people who needed to mourn; the Weasleys who lost yet another child, and so many of their friends from school. There were those who were trapped in the building, and died simply because they had chosen to gone to work that morning. There were people who died because they genuinely believed they were fighting for a good cause. People who had fought to protect their institution. And people who knew the truth but wanted the chaos anyways.
It was going to be hard to recover from this, especially seeing that they had just fought a war three years ago. It had taken the world nearly a year before the aftermath finally started to wear off. Something was certain; there would need to be a change in how things were run in the world, and despite her love of her research, part of her wanted to take on a role in doing so, even if it were a minor one.
She kissed Scorpius as she set him down, "Be good for your Aunt Ginny, okay? We'll be back soon. We just need to take care of a few more things."
Scorpius looked terrified, and she could tell he was still worried about losing them, so she pulled him in for a tight hug as she bent down to be on his level. "You won't ever lose us, okay? It's over. The reason you came back here is over. Everything is going to be good from here on out, so don't worry, baby. I promise things are going to be much better now."
Draco nodded as he smiled, "Besides, your mother finally admitted she loved me, so I think that's a good start too, don't you."
"Draco!" She scolded her husband, while Scorpius smiled amused.
As the others began apparating out of the room, Hermione let out a deep breath. There would be a lot of healing which needed to occur for society to be able to move on from this. There were a lot of lies and pain involved with helping the Vetusta come to place in the beginning, and it stood to reason that a lot of changes would need to occur.
It would be a long path to recovery, but Hermione was certain that they would make it there eventually. It would take a lot of work, but she didn't doubt that as a whole they would make it. Despite how bleak the future looked all those weeks ago, it was finally over, and things were going to be okay.
A/N: This story isn't over yet! I still have a few loose ends to tie up, so hang in there! I would like to thank all of you for making it this far though, and the last few chapters have been rather stressful for out characters. And I would also like to point out that this is the longest I've kept Hermione and Draco from being together, and let me just say it was so hard. I wanted to throw them together so many times and just let them kiss, especially in a few of those moments filled with tension. But they're finally together, and you're going to get more fluff for them from here on out!