Epilogue

One week after Astor's death, Hermione wrote to Harry, fibbing just a little. She told him she'd be visiting London soon, and needed to let him know about something that had happened which he'd need to keep to himself. Of course she trusted him to do as requested, and was aware he would be under the impression it was something as simple as perhaps an unexpected pregnancy. And, of course, she fudged the return address on the missive, making it look as though she were still out of town for the time being, as suggested in her letter.

Hugh's vampire-family and Patricia's mother received proper burials and a discreet renovation of Malfoy Manor's interior—and exploration of all hidden passages—had begun. They were still deciding what to do with the oubliette. The disappointments room was to be gutted, replaced with a second-floor sunroom. Patricia's idea; a bit of light to banish the darkness that'd occurred there.

Hugh no longer wished for death as he had before he'd turned Patricia. On the contrary, once he learned the sequence of events that had led to their reunion, he became taken with the idea that this was fate and embraced his new chance at existing. How else could such a random thing as a stranger to both of them spontaneously choosing to come home have resulted in two people the world didn't even know existed anymore finding each other again?

Patricia was introduced as a Malfoy cousin from France, recently recovered from a debilitating illness, explaining away that there'd been no previous mentions of her because she'd not been expected to survive and they were trying to spare the family the emotional trauma of speaking about her. It had taken Hermione & Astoria a little time to come up with that. Though, Hermione had been in the awkward position of having to explain to Astoria what she meant when she once clumsily referred to Hugh as Patricia's emotional support Muggle. The couple was residing peacefully in one of the darker wings of the manor.

Draco and Astoria returned to the Greengrass Estate after their 'spontaneous getaway' to continue planning their wedding. Hermione was chagrined to realize that she and Draco were now friends, though she and Astoria spoke frequently.

As for Hermione and Lucius...

"Remind me why we keep coming here?" Mr. Malfoy groused as he gracefully dropped himself to lay back on Hermione's bed in her house.

"Privacy?" Before he could point out they had plenty of privacy in their wing of the manor, she tacked on, "Here I can walk 'round the entire house nude if I want."

His brows shot upward, but he kept his expression cool, if a bit curious, as he asked, "Is this a thing you want to do often?"

"Maybe." She smiled. "Oh, by the way, Astoria told me they're planning on an evening ceremony now."

"So you three can attend? Thoughtful, considering how much of a stir it'll create when I walk in with Hermione Granger on my arm."

Miss Granger snickered and let herself collapse on her back beside him. "Next time we return to the manor, Patricia would like your help."

"With?"

"She wants to find her grandmother, Allyria. She said Astor never considered searching, but... she's still out there, somewhere."

"Makes sense he wouldn't have looked," Lucius said with a sigh. "Probably didn't want anyone in his life he'd feel had control over him."

"That's a good point, I hadn't consider that." Hermione's gaze roved the ceiling. "Also, she um, she asked again about... well, about our plans."

Turning onto his side, he rested his elbow on the bed and propped his chin against his palm. Looking down at her, he echoed, "Our plans?"

"Well, about, you know, the fact that you're human and I'm not. We've no desire to be away from each other, but we can't go on forever like this. I mean, I adore you, but you're no spring chicken."

"Rude," he said in a scoffing tone.

"Seriously, though." Laughing, she went on. "I'm not asking for tomorrow or even next week, but we should have some idea of how we want to approach this. I mean..." She swallowed hard as she considered the question she had to ask. "Do you even want to become like me?"

"In truth, when this started, I'd have been against the idea. But now, after everything I've witnessed from you, Patricia, Hugh—Merlin knows, not Astor? Yes. However, I have one condition."

She sighed, tipping her head to one side as she reached up, opening the collar of his robes. "Let's hear it."

"Give me one year. One year as a human, and we get away from England for a while. Go see other places."

"What? Like a trip around the world?"

"No." He held her gaze steadily. "A trip to all the places you've been. I want to see all the things you did before you became a vampire."

Hermione smiled. She was sure if her heart still beat, it would've skipped just then at the sentiment. At the idea of sharing something like that.

"Okay." Her fingertips trailed along his throat and he gave a delicious shiver in response. "I'm still thinking over what I'm going to say to Harry. He's going to have an easier time with the fact that I'm a vampire than he will with the idea that I'm dating a Malfoy."

"I leave that conversation to you, Miss Granger." Though 'dating' was a very mild way of describing their relationship, he understood the need to downplay their dynamic.

She weighed his words, realizing that they had never discussed the way they addressed one another. "Mr. Malfoy?"

"Hmm?" His eyes had drifted closed and he remained still, enjoying her touch.

"We address each other so formally, despite how intimate we are with each other. Does that seem strange to you?"

"No." He grinned, reaching around her blindly to sink the fingers of his free hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head. "I think I've always just considered it something that was, I don't know, simply 'us', I suppose. Why? Does it seem strange to you?"

Hermione held back a laugh. That sounded near-exact to how she'd explained it to Patricia when she'd asked. "No."

"Good. But you're hungry, I can tell, so enough chatting." He lifted her head, bringing her mouth to his throat. He went on, his tone warm, affectionate in that way that was meant for her, alone. "Go on, then, Miss Granger. Bite me."

THE END

Thank you all so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed taking this 'ridiculous' journey with me over the last 126 days. Hard to believe it's over (I wanted to leave a heart, but y'all know FFN's system auto-deletes the 'less-than' symbol, so we'll say 'I less-than-3 you').