Almost four months after the final battle, Hermione laid in the arms of her fiancé as he slept soundly after their lovemaking. She smiled at the sounds of his gentle snores – especially since she was the one who had worn him out, after all. She was tired herself, but sleep continued to elude her for the moment. Therefore, she amused herself with her memories.

As they often did, her thoughts turned towards her brother and how different her life would have been if she had not jumped in front of Dolohov and Bellatrix's curses that night in the DoM. If Sirius had not been in their lives these last two years, she had a feeling that things would have turned out to be very different and much more difficult than they had!

She knew without a doubt that the Horcrux hunt would have been even more of a nightmare without him. After all, because of his connection to Regulus, he was the one who destroyed the Slytherin locket after Harry retrieved the Sword of Gryffindor from the lake. He was also the one who convinced Ripstorm, the Blacks' account manager at Gringotts, to search the Lestrange vault for a Horcrux. The goblins had remained neutral in the Wizarding Wars, but they were so deeply offended at the thought of being used to harbor an item of such dark magic that they agreed. Therefore, they found the Hufflepuff Cup and destroyed it themselves. Later, Sirius helped Harry to fight off Malfoy and his goons in order to allow her to focus on controlling the Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement in order to destroy the Ravenclaw Diadem and not kill everyone else in the process.

Hermione was also grateful for her brother because she knew that without him, events could have turned out very differently when she and Harry were captured by the snatchers. It had happened while Sirius was out hunting as Padfoot. Once they had been taken to Malfoy Manor, Hermione had been separated from Harry and was made very aware of what Greyback and the others were planning to do to "Potter's Whore." However, Sirius thwarted their plans because he was able to determine exactly what happened as soon as he returned to the tent to find them missing and the ward alarms sounding. Therefore, he called in Winky and Dobby (who had gone back to Grimmauld Place for some additional supplies) to find Hermione and Harry through their bonds. Consequently, in just a very short time, the loyal house elves had helped them all escape to the safe house at Shell Cottage - along with the other prisoners in the cells. Sirius had also received some closure that day when he saw Peter Pettigrew die – literally by his own hand.

Sirius made a huge difference during the final battle, as well, which caused a wide domino ripple effect that even Hermione was not aware of until later. First, he saved his best friend, who had been dueling with a masked Death Eater, by knocking Remus out of the way right as the green killing curse was shot in his direction. The two of them then stunned the attacker, disarmed him, and bound him so that Remus could find Tonks. He was just in time because she had tripped and fallen, and was being approached by another masked Death Eater. There wasn't much left of that one afterwards, however, after the frantic blasting spell that Remus sent that way in order to protect his wife. Just a short while after that, Tonks was the one who saved Fred when she saw the wall collapsing around him. She was able to Accio him out from under it - just in time. Therefore, when Hermione heard about this sequence of events, she shuddered to think about what would have happened to her three friends if Sirius had not been there in the first place!

Padfoot also made several appearances throughout the battle as well. In fact, it was the big black dog that distracted Greyback so that Ron could pull Lavender away to safety after she had been attacked. Once their friends were clear, the two lions finished off the evil werewolf for good. It was noted afterwards, that several other corpses of well-known Death Eaters with vicious reputations were later found on the battlefield with their throats ripped out – but without another mark on them anywhere.

Many people that day, from both sides, also watched in awe as Padfoot and the Lioness escorted Harry safely (one on each side of him with his hands resting lightly on their heads) to his final confrontation with Voldemort. They observed Harry hug first the large canine and then the massive feline (also kissing the latter on the nose) before turning away from them and walking resolutely towards his destiny. Then the two of them stood guard at the entrance of that isolated courtyard to insure that no Death Eaters could get near their master in order to offer aid or a means of escape. Even though they longed to help Harry, they knew that the prophecy had to be fulfilled – one way or the other. The entire battlefield stilled during this time while both sides seemed to collectively hold their breath. Finally, a large lion with a bloody muzzle emerged alone and sank tiredly to its knees in front of the lioness. Within the blink of an eye, the two felines were replaced by Harry and Hermione - who were wrapped in each other's embrace. A cheer went up from most of the crowd then as Sirius, back to his original form, as well, joyously shouted "It's all over!"

In the chaotic aftermath, while Sirius and the others stayed to round up the remaining Death Eaters and treat the wounded. Hermione called for Dobby to take the physically and emotionally exhausted Harry back to Grimmauld Place. There Winky fussed over both him and Hermione until their overtaxed bodies collapsed into a deep sleep in each other's arms. Upon awakening, Harry again sank down on his knees in front of his human lioness in order to propose to her! After her enthusiastic acceptance, he let her know that he had been waiting to do that until he was sure that they were going to survive. She validated the wisdom of that plan by instigating a quick, but thorough, celebration of their love. Afterwards, they both reluctantly acknowledged their duty and had Dobby take them back to Hogwarts to assist in any way that they could.

Afterwards, however, Hermione just couldn't shake the suspicion that their losses, as devastating as they were, would have been much worse if Sirius had not been there with them, if he had not helped destroy the Horcruxes, if he had not helped them become animagi, or if he had not saved Remus at the beginning of the battle. In fact, the list could go on and on and on…

Since she was still having difficulty going to sleep, Hermione's thoughts turned away from the final battle and towards their current situation. Now that most of the Castle had been magically rebuilt, classes had resumed. Due to their wide variety of circumstances, the Seventh Year NEWT students who were supposed to have graduated the previous year had been given the option to live off of campus and to floo in for classes - if they wished. Some of their friends had decided to stay in the Castle in order to reestablish some normalcy and predictable routine in their lives. Others decided to continue living in the dormitories in order to be close to their significant others. Neville and Dean fell into this category since they didn't want to be away from Luna and Ginny. Seamus also decided to stay on campus with them in order to make up for the year of lost time with Dean and also, Hermione suspected, to be near Hannah Abbott.

Ron and Lavender, however, were invited to move in with Bill and Fleur until they graduated – since their situations were now very similar and Bill was helping Lavender to cope with the aftereffects of Greyback's attack. Therefore, the floos were often very active between Shell Cottage and Grimmauld Place - especially since Harry and Hermione had decided to stay at their own home with Sirius and their favorite house elves. After their time on the run, they had no desire to pretend to be dutiful, rule-abiding students again who were worried about things like curfews. Consequently, living off-campus was the perfect solution for them. They were able to finish their education, as well as have dinner with Sirius every evening, and sleep in the same bed together every night.

This worked well for Sirius, too. He missed the constant presence of Remus since Moony, Tonks, and little Teddy had chosen to move in with Andromeda after Ted's death. However, both households still saw each other frequently – especially since Harry and Hermione had been made Teddy's godparents. Plus, a certain werewolf still had the company of a big black dog (and often one or two lions, as well) during the full moon.

Sirius was also still adjusting to his first real taste of absolute freedom in over sixteen years. He had finally been cleared of all previous charges after Kingsley became Minister and had testified in front of the remainder of the Wizengamot for him along with many of those who had been held prisoner at Malfoy Manor, and those who had been present at the final battle. In fact, Sirius Orion Black was awarded an Order of Merlin for his services and sacrifices for the Wizarding World and he proudly accepted the honor along with his sister, Hermione Granger Black, and his godson, Harry James Potter.

Sirius didn't revert back to his old carefree bachelor habits, though - even if many people thought he would. Instead, he joined his werewolf friend as they accepted positions in the new Ministry in order to help rebuild the shattered wizarding world. He had also started quietly dating a cursebreaking colleague of Bill's. Hermione really liked Cecelia (who had graduated from Beaxbaton when Fleur was just a First Year) and highly approved of the match. She thought that Cecelia's passionate French spirit and love of adventure would help to bring Sirius back into the world from which he had hidden for so long.

Hermione was also pleased by this development because she didn't want to leave Sirius completely alone next year when she and Harry moved back permanently to Hogwarts to complete their apprenticeships. Before the beginning of term, Headmistress McGonagall had approached them both with offers. After complimenting them on their extremely impressive animagi forms, and having them fill out all of the necessary paperwork to properly register themselves and Sirius, she proceeded to offer a Transfiguration apprenticeship to Hermione. Her duties as the new Headmistress meant that she would soon have to turn her classes over to someone else and she knew exactly whom she wanted that to be. The same was true for the DADA position. Who could be more qualified to teach that subject than Harry Potter? This was especially true since the curse on that particular position had been lifted with Tom Riddle's death. Fleur had agreed to fill that position temporarily – until Harry was ready to take over the classes completely. Hopefully, both Hermione and Harry would be ready to take over the lower level classes by the next school year and be ready to teach full-time the year after that. Therefore, McGonagall was eager to come to an agreement with the two extremely talented young people before someone else snatched them up.

She decided that she would allow them to go ahead and take their NEWTS in both of those areas immediately (since all it took was one look at both their animagus forms and their war experiences to see that they were probably over-qualified in both areas – even though they were still students who had missed a whole year of their schooling). Anyway, testing out of those subjects would allow them to spend that allotted coursework time this year being co-assistant teachers and putting that experience towards their apprenticeship requirements. Well aware of the new ring that was now displayed on Hermione's finger, Headmistress McGonagall also offered the couple modified apprentice quarters (which turned out to be very similar to the set up that they had at Grimmauld Place). They would be sharing these quarters with Neville, however, because he had been offered the same opportunity for an apprenticeship in Herbology. Harry and Hermione had no problem with any of this, however, and after speaking with Sirius (whose opinion mattered very much to them both), they eagerly agreed to the terms. They also happily decided that they would get married the summer before they became full professors. Yes, they would still be young then. However, they were confident they had been through too much together to ever be willing to give up on their relationship!

Hermione was so deep in her memories of the past, her thoughts of the present, and her hopes for the future that she barely felt it when a tender kiss was placed on her temple. Then Harry murmured in her ear, "You need to get some sleep, Mione, love. You know that we have an early class in the morning."

Her heart swelled with love for the concerned man next to her and she knew that she really had her brother to thank for this wonderful relationship, as well. She knew that it was highly unlikely that she and Harry would ever have ended up together without those first six weeks alone at Grimmauld Place to really get to know each other better - along with Sirius's surprisingly quiet and subtle encouragement. It was amazing to her when she thought about how happy she was now – especially when she compared it to the misery in which she found herself two years ago.

Harry then pulled her closer. "I love you!" he mumbled sleepily.

"That makes all the difference," she responded warmly as she turned to cuddle up to him. Then her body relaxed completely as she finally gave in to the pull of a well-earned rest.