Prologue:

August 12th, 1998,

12:10 pm —

Diagon Alley

It was incautious of Hermione, honestly, to run away from her problems in England and move to Sweden like the cowardly lion in the muggle film The Wizard of Oz. She was supposed to be a Gryffindor for Circe sakes! Brave of heart, tenacious, resilient being the key term, all of which Hermione felt she was not at the present time.

After running from friends she had not seen in seventeen years, all because of the aftermath of the war and all the deaths, and God, Fred's death might have been the catalyst in those events, of course the Weasley's were affected the most, Harry and Hermione respectively as well, but the person who Hermione was friends with at the time 'apparently' had something to do with his death.

Hermione dated Ron Weasley for a quaint few months after the war, until one day, some months after all of the funerals, Ron stopped meeting with Hermione and Harry for their usual drink at the Leaky Cauldron, all of Hermione's owls were sent back, and he even went as far as to block his floo network and put up anti-apparition wards on his apartment.

But what shocked Hermione the most, was the fact that he altered the wards around The Burrow so Hermione couldn't even visit what she considered her extended family.

Hermione saw Ron one day in Diagon Alley and when confronted he wouldn't even speak to her for longer than a minute, he didn't even look at her once during their talk.

"Ron! Would you please tell me what I did!" Generally, Hermione wasn't the type of person who would cause a scene in the middle of a busy street on a Saturday, of all the days of the week, but today was different.

"You didn't do anything Hermione."

"Then why haven't you spoken to me, it's been weeks! Even Harry won't talk to me anymore! I clearly did something to you to make all of your family turn against me." Ron wouldn't even look in her eyes, how could something that was so right fall to shreds in the blink of an eye?

"I've been waiting for you to get my break-up-owl." He muttered weakly. Break-up-owl's were the latest Witch Weekly trend, as designed by Lavender Brown, designer of some of the world's worst tchotchke's.

"You've been ignoring me because you were waiting for me to get some ridiculous owl? Are you kidding me Ronald? You could've just broken up with me in person and I wouldn't have to have made a complete fool out of myself in public!"

"I'm not breaking up with you because of you, 'Mione! I'm breaking up with you because of who you're friends with!" Ron had always had an issue with her friendship with Draco Malfoy, pureblood bigot extraordinaire, since Hermione told him and Harry she and that Death Eater became friends in the latter half of their fifth year.

"So my friendship with Draco is that much of an issue for you? I knew you had problems with him, but of course you always told me it was okay, everything was fine. No, I cannot believe you didn't speak to me about this first before you decided to send me a breakup-owl!" Hermione shook her head in disbelief.

"Well, 'Mione, I didn't want to have to do this, but I have to say it. If you stop being friends — if that's what you call it — with Malfoy, I won't break up with you. That's my final answer."

"You're asking me to give up a friendship with someone? Someone I've been friends with for over two years?"

"Yes. I'm asking you to save a friendship of seven years with your boyfriend and best friend! Harry and Ginny agree, you shouldn't throw away all we have just for someone who tormented you for the majority of the time you've known him!" She had never known any of her friends to be so selfish, maybe the war hadn't changed as much as they all proclaimed it had.

"You're really giving me an ultimatum Ronald? Well I don't want to be with someone who is going to give me ultimatum's when it comes to my life decisions, not yours. Who I choose to be friends with is not your concern. If you can't see past that prejudiced little boy he once was, than you're no better than those people in the war we were fighting against!

"The war clearly hasn't opened your eyes yet Ronald. It's time for you to grow up. Draco's changed, I can see that he has. He's a good man, Ron, and if you can't accept the fact that I chose to become friends with him, then maybe we aren't right for each other. "

"Then I have nothing else to say, don't expect to be hearing from anyone you know anytime soon. Goodbye, Hermione Granger." Hermione was shell-shocked as she stared at the place Ron had disapparated from.

"Alright let's do it, let's move to Sweden." Draco didn't have the chance to open the door to his apartment fully before Hermione barged in and began summoning all sorts of packing materials.

"Woah, Hermione. Hermione! Slow down, talk, what happened between now and last week?" Hermione's frantic taping and boxing of various items stopped as she glared at Draco with a look he had seen only a few times in their two and a half years of friendship.

"Ron… He, he broke up with me because…"

"Because what?" Draco's shocking eyes never once strayed from her own, something Ron-the-brawn wasn't particularly known for.

"Because I'm friends with you, and I told him I wouldn't stop being friends with you, no matter what! He even gave me an ultimatum, can you believe that?"

"I'm guessing you took the latter option then?" Draco had started summoning his belongings into luggage amidst Hermione's ranting.

"Absolutely not. I told him that if he couldn't accept who I was friends with then he and I shouldn't be together in the first place."

"I don't want you to give up all you've worked for just for me, Granger, I was a right git to you for years. Heck, I don't think I even deserve your friendship now, especially after my stupid decisions during the war. You've been through so much pain already, you don't deserve this." Draco grasped her hand tenderly, as one would do if they were comforting a loved one.

* "Life is pain, Draco. Anyone who says differently is selling something."

"Why must you quote those stupid muggle romantic-comedy movies when we're having a moment?"

"Hey! They actually have some substance if they've got a good story line, and that one particularly does."

"So when are we leaving?" The duo had finished packaging all of Draco's kitchen utensils into conjured bubble wrap and shrunk them so they fit into the suitcase with the undetectable extension charm.

"There's an international portkey to Stockholm tonight. I think as soon as possible would be best."

"I always knew you were one for adventure Granger." Draco's impish grin that Hermione loved appeared on his face as the two sat in the middle of his bare apartment on the kitchen floor, hoping that one day in the future their lives would have some meaning.

Their lives may not have been good at that minute, but the next years were the happiest of their lives, and the way Draco and Hermione saw it, they wouldn't have changed anything for a second.

Note:

Tchotchke: Yiddish for a trinket-type object

* Taken from The Princess Bride

Word Count: 1,259