AN: Well folks, here it is. The last chapter of Tears of an Innocent. The Epilogue. The Finale. This is it. It's been fun. I believe ending this on my birthday is a good omen. Ending my first fic is a birthday present to me. I would like to give a SQUEE! And Tackelhug to Elsepeth (GeekofyerDreams) who posted her last chapter as a birthday present to me. So without out further ado SQUEE!!!! ::tackelhugs::
Reviews: I can't tell you guys how happy your reviews make me. They make my day. I love talking to you guys. If you have an AIM sn talk to me, or a live journal add me to your friends list. Or just email me. I enjoy input on my story or just talking to my reviewers. I'll miss you all, you better come and review my new story or else ::looks threatening:: I love you guys.
Geekofyerdreams: ::tackelhugs:: I love you
Haystack8190: I'm happy you liked my little twist. I wanted Hermione to kick ass…and she did.
Dershana: You bet I'll be posting new stories. Check out From the Ground Up. I'll be rewriting the chapter that is up, and more than likely I'll change the name. But that's my new focus now that this is over
Malleana: Well…::cracks neck:: I've been told that I'm immortal before because…I AM the goddess of the apocalypse (it was a live journal test…heh LOL! I suppose I could have made Voldemort rape Hermione, however he has twisted Harry's feelings of love into hate, and finds physical release a weakness. I didn't explain that very well (one of the many things I'll work on when I'm rewriting it) On the Hermione/Tom front the best fic I've read so far is "Everything I know" by One Crimson Tie. I have a little Tom/Ginny drabble but it's nothing special…I may be expanding on it later but for right now…well…my new Hermione/Draco fic is going to take prescient
Mintytoothpick: well, here it is luv!
LegolasEstelstar: ::huggles:: NO!!!! DON'T KILL MY BABIES!!!! ::glomps Hermione and Draco:: I NEED them to write new stories…what's a little abuse? To be completely honest, I'm not sure whether or not there is a god. I definitely believe in the BELIEF of god…but do I myself believe in him?...I honestly don't know. I sure hop that if there is a hell, I won't go. I'm sure hell is no place for you either. LOL I just washed dishes.
Keda: I love epilogues as well, they're great. I'll be sure to read your story. Tell me when it's posted and I'll go check it out.
Sailor PPearl: Yes master ::obeys hurriedly:: here it is master
Ginny Weasley: Thanks luv. Here's the epilogue. This almost made me cry so…yah
Chibimecools: Yah it is. But there will be other fics by me. You better go read them to…or else ::looks threatening::
Sk8erpunkGCpnay: You better update or I'll kill you! Here's the epilogue.
Dracos-DAMN-sexy27: Not done yet…well now it is but…yah
Kichiko: MY 300TH REVIEWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ::Glomps::
DarkAngelB: That…that was…horrible ::hides from Sally's tasteless lemons::
The-sexy-flower: Yes…I rather enjoy the conversations myself and…what story? There's a story?
Oni-Tenchie: HERE IT IS!!!!!! YAY!
V-queen: I know I would KILL to see that…yummy. Thank you
Kelsey Malfoy xox: hehe…Draco is kind of a sissy in this story…but I still love him ::huggles Draco:: I love long annoying reviews ::poke::
Gottalovedrakie: YAY! Make sure you review that one to! ::wink wink::
AND WITHOUT FURTHER ADO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chapter Fourteen: Happily Ever After
Hermione woke slowly
Relishing the exquisite soreness of her muscles as she stretched languidly
She stared at the deep blue over hang of the bed for a moment and then turned over on her side
Pillowing her head on the shoulder of the man next her
Resting her hand on his stomach she stared at the ring that glinted on her left hand
It still didn't seem real
Waking up next to him
Being able to touch him
She expected to wake up and find herself still in the cold dungeons of Hogwarts, with Draco standing over her, telling her how much he hated her
It still didn't seem real
To be this happy
She lifted her hand up so that the sun streaming in through the window was captured in the diamond and sent spinning around the room, making the dream like state she was in more pronounced.
But the warm body of her husband next to her assured her that it was real
She stroked his silky white hair back from his face tenderly before rolling away from him, to get out of the bed
He mumbled sleepily and wrapped his arm securely around her waist, preventing her from leaving
Giving him a perturbed look she began their morning ritual
Instead of tugging at the arms she placed her feet on his warm calf and watched with glee as he shot up and gave a startled yelp
"COLD!"
She then gave him a not to gentle shove off the edge of the bed, smiling at the resounding thump
Lying down widthwise across the bed she propped her head up in her hands and stared down at the disgruntled Malfoy
"Good morning husband." She said in an amused voice
Her eyes alight with silent laughter
Draco stared up at her, his pale blue eyes glinting evilly
"Witch" he mumbled and then before Hermione could scramble backwards he sat up, grabbed her elbows, and pulled her off the bed and onto his chest
She rested her forehead against his, so that their noses were touching, her long red brown locks spread across them
"I see you're awake now" Hermione said solemnly, valiantly trying to suppress a giggle
Draco just growled
Hermione's face turned an odd shade of fuscia as the urge to giggle became more pronounced
"This" Draco said slowly "is an ungodly hour in which to wake."
Hermione sneered at him, some thing she had become increasingly good at since meeting him.
"It is" she said with a glance towards the clock "almost noon, and we are already late"
"Yes but we were up most of the night, weren't we? And they can wait…they work for me after all." Draco said silkily, a suggestive smirk playing across his pale feature
Hermione muffled a giggle and gave him a reproving look, digging her elbows into his ribs for good measure
Draco gave an undignified grunt and repaid in kind; rolling over and pinning Hermione underneath him, tickling her ribs until she was breathless with laughter
Draco stopped his attack and stared down into his wife's beautiful, flushed face
It still didn't seem real
To be this happy
To have her finally be his
To be able to love her without repercussions
To be able to kiss her
Draco's eyes wandered down to Hermione's half parted lips and the expression in his eyes darkened
Slowly his lips met hers
He didn't know how many times he had kissed her, just like this, but it always felt like the first time
His heart beat sped up and his breathing grew shallow
His body tingled with pleasure
He knew it would always be like this
When he kissed her for the hundredth time, the thousandth, and the millionth
He would always love her
"We're going to be late." Hermione mumbled against his lips as her hands slid up his chest to wrap around his neck
"So let's be late." Draco murmured
And the were
XOXOXOXOXO
It was almost two o'clock when Draco and Hermione finally made their was down the stairs towards Draco's office
Hermione still fumbling with the buttons of her blouse as she pulled on a shoe and tried to fasten her robe
Draco realized that he had forgotten his underwear and his pants were chaffing rather uncomfortably, his silver hair was mussed for once and he had misbuttoned his shirt, his robe however hid this from view.
They had an excuse
They were newlyweds
Draco held the door to the office open for Hermione and she finally got her shoe on as she walked through the doorway
"Good afternoon Mr. Shacklebolt. I apologize for making you wait." Hermione held her hand out to the tall man who stood at their entrance
"Not a problem my dear." He said, his white teeth gleaming against his dark skin, as he took her small hand in his two large ones and squeezed gently
"Do you have the information we requested Mr. Shacklebolt?" Draco queried as he moved to the seat behind the desk
"Indeed I do Mr. Malfoy." Kingsly said, his smile fading
He still hadn't trust Draco completely, even though it had been Draco who had rescued him from the dungeons of the Goyle mansion
He knew that Hermione believed him reformed but…Kingsly had his suspicions.
He would however, assist Hermione and Draco as long as it was helping the rebel faction gain strength
As long as it helped the make things right
Draco had come upon Kingsly while visiting Gregory Goyle and immediately knocked him out and brought him back to the Malfoy mansion under an invisibility spell, and a mumbled mobilius corpus.
Kingsly had struggled with Draco in the office, after he regained consciousness, until Hermione had come running in and ordered them both to stop, and when they hadn't, she had stopped them with a clever freezing charm.
After securing his promise to listen, and Draco's promise not to attack guests she unfroze them and sat them both down.
She explained to Kingsly how they had defeated Voldemort, but how none of the Death Eaters, except Draco, knew he was gone.
She outlined their plan in careful detail, she told him how they would allow the Death Eaters to think Voldemort was still alive, misleading them with lies that Draco would feed them. They then would begin releasing prisoners, and picking off death eaters, one by one, and gradually reform the rebel faction.
Then, when it was back at full strength, they would attack the remaining death eaters, taking them by surprise and taking them into custody.
Kingsly had listened, shocked by Hermione's daring, and Draco's sudden change of heart
He had not questioned the obvious bond between them, nor the affection shown through a casual touch, or whispered endearment, he had not batted an eyelash when they were married in a privet ceremony no more then two weeks ago.
He had followed Hermione's directions, and finally…
It was done
"These are the lists of the all the Death Eaters who were taken into custody." Kingsly said, handing Hermione a plain manila envelope "These" he continued "are the lists of Death Eaters who were killed during the fight." He said handing another manila envelope to Hermione "and this" he said slowly "is the list of witches, wizards, and muggles we recovered from various hiding locations, death camps, and privet homes in England"
Hermione dropped the other two manila envelops on to the ground and stood, taking the envelope Kingsly held
Opening it, she pulled the sheaves of paper out and stared and the list of names
There were so few, only two hundred or so, added to the one hundred that they had already liberated
She quickly scanned through the names reading the ones she recognized out loud
"Seamus Finnigan, Hannah Abott, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Justin Finch-Fletchly" Hermione's voice broke, and she cleared her throat, reaching her hand out to grip Draco's tightly "Dudley Dursly, Ne-Neville Longbottom" Hermione began to cry, silent tears that fell down her cheeks and obscured her vision, she blinked rapidly and continued to read "Remus Lupin, Padma Patil, Dean Thomas, Nymphadora Tonks, Sybil Trelwany, Lisa Turpin, Bill Weasley and…Ginny Weasley." Hermione looked up her lip trembling
"They're alive Draco! They're all alive" Hermione sank slowly back down into her chair, and then she began to cry in earnest, great gulping sobs that shook her slim frame
She cried for the people on the list, but more for the people who were not.
Fred
George
Ron
Molly
Arthur
Dedalus Diggle
Emmaline Vance
Hestia Jones
Sturgis Podmore
Moody
Sirius
Dumbledore
Percy
Snape
McGonagal
They were all gone
And so many thousands of others
And for what?
Some mad man's schemes
Draco stood, and walked around the desk, wrapping his arms around Hermione, his chin resting on top of her head as she sobbed into his chest
"All these people Draco! They're all alive!" she whispered "They're okay." She stared at the list and then she began to laugh.
Holding on tighter to Draco she laughed while the tears streamed down her cheeks
All those names
The hope spread through her like a wild fire
These people were the future of Wizarding England
"They're all okay" she gasped through her laughter "Everything's going to be okay." She whispered
She leaned away from Draco and took his hand "Everything" she repeated
Kingsly watched the scene with a tear in his eye, then he turned on his heel and closed the door on the newlywed couple
He couldn't help but embrace that small glimmering hope, this joy he felt
It didn't seem real
To be this happy
AN: This may not be exactly what you were expecting, but I needed some closure. I wanted to tell you who was alive, I wanted to give Hermione and Draco hope, I wanted to give them a happily ever after. I didn't want it to be clichéd.
Well folks that was it. The chapter lengths have been erratic, the plot has been shaky at best, but this story never failed to bring a smile to my face. I can only hope it's done the same to you.
I will be rewriting this story and reposting it shortly. There will be new scenes and all (most) of the spelling mistakes will have been corrected as well as some grammatical errors. I've been working on the Time line for my story "From the Ground Up" The chapter that is up now on my page is more of a rough draft, I'll be replacing it and probably changing the name of the story. It will be dramatically different from this one, but better I hope.
Now, being as it's the last chapter you have no reason not to review….so please, please, please review.
Draco: HAHAHAHAH IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!
Hermione: ::sighs:: were you not listening? There will be another one.
Draco: Damn it…will I be a sissy in that one to?
OA: No…you get to punch Harry! ::claps::
Draco:…well I'm good with that
Hermione: ::grabs Draco by the lapels:: you touch him and I'll kill you
Draco: ::laughs nervously:: you aren't acting very wifely
Hermione : ::growls::
OA: Hey! I'm not dead yet!
Draco: ::looks towards author:: One more time? For old times sake
OA: ::sighs:: Oh…very well
Draco/Hermione: ::duct tape author to rocket:: THREE…TWO…ONE….::light rocket, author goes flying into the stratosphere::
Sky: ::rains bits of OA::
REVIEW!!!!