A/N This is the last chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed it. Many thanks for the wonderful comments. I cherrish them all. - Neminiwrites

There were many who were there to make repairs. She arrived at breakfast and was celebrated as she came in. The great hall was filled with young and old. All clapping furiously at her red face. She made her way to the head table. Passing those who wanted to talk and touch her as if she were a holy relic. Minerva McGonagall sat in the headmaster's chair. She stood as Hermione came closer. "At last Hermione. It's good to see you. How is Draco?"

It was clear the young woman was upset, and the wise professor rounded the table and grabbed her into a hug. "There now lass. Why don't we go to my office for a nice cup of tea."

Hermione walked as if in a dream. When she was sat at the couch before the fire she began to cry. "Professor I need your help. I've just been told something horrible."

McGonagall sat next to her, and Hermione laid her head on the surrogate mother's shoulder. "It's all right, now, tell me what you need."

Hermione told her all she had learned. "I need to speak with Dumbledor. He has to tell me the truth. Is he awake yet?"

"Hello Ms. Granger." A soft familiar voice came from the office wall.

Hermione went to the portrait. "Professor Dumbledor. Please. You must answer a question for me."

"What is it you need to know so desperately?"

"Is it true that you knew Harry wasn't the chosen one?" Hermione wanted the truth but was afraid of losing the kind, caring man who had looked after them as best he could.

Dumbledor sighed sadly. "Yes Hermione. I knew. I had to keep Neville safe at all costs. He had to fulfill the prophecy. I knew that if I groomed him as I did Harry, that Voldemort would find out and kill him. All would be lost. I decided to utilized a muggle magicians' trick. Distract the audience while you palm the ace. I knew Harry was a horcrux and that Voldemort assumed he was the chosen one. It worked! We lost Harry, but Neville survived and destroyed the most powerful wizard since Merlin."

Hermione felt sick. "Oh? 'We lost Harry'. Is it so easy for you to say. Didn't you care for him at all, or was he just another chess piece on your board? And what about Ron and I?"

Dumbledor stood up and paced what little floor was painted for him. "OF COURSE I CARED! But there was nothing to be done. He had to die, as all the horcruxes had to die. Have you forgotten already what Voldemort would have done to this world! He had to be stopped. Sacrifices had to be made. My life, Harry's life, Severus' life, whatever it took for the greater good."

Hermione looked to Professor McGonagall. Her hand covered her mouth and devastation was in her eyes. To hear a headmaster who supposedly tended to all under his care, say that no one and nothing was beyond his plan to win at all costs, was devastating. "Oh Albus. He was a child. What have you done?"

"What needed to be done Minerva. If it came down to it, I would have killed Harry myself. Now go away!"

Hermione grew pale as she reached for McGonagall. They held each other's hand for comfort as they turned away and left the office. "I'm sorry Hermione. This was a difficult thing to learn. War is full of tragedies such as this. The innocent die at the hands of those running the game."

They had made it to the front doors together. "You are so strong Hermione. You must find a way to move past this war. We have paid a terrible price. We must not squander the future now." She hugged Hermione and went inside.

Hermione went down the path and passed the gate. She knew now what she had to do. "Malfoy Manor", she whispered as she spun in a circle.

The sight of the elegant home gave her no pleasure. It had been His fortress for too long to be only a manor house. It was a place of unspeakable violence and debauchery. A place filled with memories of pain and confusion for her. A place where the walls themselves despised her kind.

She knew only one thing for certain. She loved Draco and he loved her. She wanted a future together. She would give him a choice. Her or the manor. Despite Lucius' assurance that they would live together happily, she couldn't live there, ever. McGonagall was right. They needed a brand-new start to put all of it behind them. Hermione knew it would be difficult for him to leave his home and a heritage of opulence.

The familiar crunch of the pebbles beneath her feet seemed to encourage her as she went. Her hand hadn't reached the bell before it opened. Draco stood there in his dressing gown and slippers. Panting as if he'd run all the way from his room. His red eyes were haunted and puffy and he spoke tenderly. "Hermione."

"Hello Draco. We need to talk. It's a lovely day. Are you well enough to come outside to the garden?"

"For you I would fly to the moon." He took her hand, and she supported him as they slowly strolled around to the side of the house.

Hermione led him back to the roses and they sat in the shade. "First off, don't speak until I'm done okay? I need to get this all out at once." Draco nodded solemnly. "I want to tell you how devastated I am at the news you had betrayed us, but I also realized, how very brave you were to do so. I'm glad you told me, so I didn't hear about it from someone else." She was thinking of Lucius.

Hermione sighed in resignation. "It was a horrible thing, that had to happen, or we never would have defeated Voldemort. Dumbledor told me he knew Harry was a horcrux, and he would have killed Harry himself if he'd had to. Neville really was the chosen one all along. I think even if Harry had known, he wouldn't have done anything different. He had his own demons to deal with. We knew months ago that Ron would be the one to kill the snake. We also knew it was a suicide mission. If the sword of Gryphindor had come to me, I would have used it. It didn't. It went to Ron. I suppose it was his destiny."

Draco began to relax when she seemed to understand. "You said fate had finally leant a hand. I believe you're right." Hermione grinned. "If I hadn't been your prisoner," Draco blushed and bowed his head. "you never would have been able to get to Neville. We never could have gotten the diadem from Helena. Neville wouldn't get a basilisk fang from my bag… So many things seemed to fall into place when you think about it."

There was a long moment of silence. "The only thing that had nothing to do with fate or the plan or anything, was my falling in love with you. Or you having loved me for so long. In a strange way I guess that's why I feel like I can trust it. I love you Draco and I forgive you, truely I do. I want us to be together. Thing is, I can't do it here at the manor. I'm sorry to ask you to leave your home for me, but I just can't live in that place again. It's filled with too many bad memories, and I can't see a future for us there. It will always be a part of a terrible past an…."

"Okay."

"What?"

"I said okay. You don't have to sell me Hermione. There's nothing here more important to me than you. I don't think mother will stay here much longer either. She's going to our villa in the south of France. Look, if you want to live in a hole in the ground in Wales I'll go. Just as long as we can be together."

Hermione was overwhelmed. She'd had a foolproof speech full of solid reasoning and comprehensive deduction. "But…"

Draco saw the list forming in Hermione's eyes and was delighted to cut her off mid inventory. "So where do you want to live? I was thinking Paris for the honeymoon and then maybe Milan and Rome and… How do you feel about Egypt and Morocco? Oooo maybe Japan or Tahiti?" Hermione threw her arms around him and began to laugh as he continued. "We'll settle anywhere you want. I'll build you a home in the arctic with polar bears instead of peacocks on the lawn. A treehouse in the jungles of Borneo. A yurt in…" Hermione cut him off with a deep kiss that made him forget his geography. "I love you Hermione. More than I can ever say, but I promise I will show you every day of your life."

oopOqoo

"Draco! What are you doing?" The honeymoon suite bed at the Paris savoy was large and plush. Best of all it was a brass bed that Hermione found herself tied to. Well, she had married a Slytherin after all. Hermione giggled as he kissed her and began removing the satin undergarment from her body. "Draco!"

He grinned as he began to pull the satin ribbons from the bodice. "I have waited long enough. You starved me of your body for a whole week before the wedding. Then I had to sit through a half hour long, A HALF HOUR LONG ceremony, to convince everyone of what I knew months ago. That I love you and you love me. THEN, a four-hour reception where I had to schmooze and make small talk, when all I really wanted to do was rip this dress off your body and take you there on the dance floor. NO, you are not getting away from me now."

Hermione smiled remembering the first time they'd played this game, "What if I don't want to get away?"

Draco remembered too. In fact, he had the precious memory in a glass vial to relive at his leisure in the pensive. "All the better for you then, because I intend to make you shriek in pleasure all night. You don't mind, do you princess?"

The End