For That I Thank You

By Marmalade Fever

Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim Harry Potter and any related insignia.

When I wake up in the morning and turn to see you, your head resting lightly on your pillow and your hair splayed out in all directions, haphazard, and snoring so lightly that a fly wouldn't wake up if it was sleeping on your nose, and then, when you do wake up at exactly a quarter to seven, because any sooner and you won't have gotten your exact eight hours of sleep, and any later and you'll have wasted time, and you turn, and in that groggy yet so-very alert way smile at me, I'm happy. I become instantly glad that I married you, and even more so that I ran into you again at that coffee shop two years ago, when you looked so bloody good that I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, and that you had the pluck to ask me out when we all know that my pride would have gotten in the way if it had been otherwise, and I was able to look straight at you and say, "Sure, Granger, whatever you want," because that had been what I had secretly wanted you to say, but I couldn't, not in front of my friends, but you had gall and weren't afraid of their mocking chuckles. And then, when you get up and make me do the same, and tell me exactly which tie I should wear to impress each individual client I plan to meet with that day, and instruct me on how to use rhetoric to the utmost benefit, sounding poised, professional, yet sincere in a way that no one can resist signing on, even if they're merely agreeing to switch from a business to a platinum account, I know you're the best thing in my life, and I should praise the heavens daily for your counsel, because it works and my company has skyrocketed, and we've become rich without my father's help. After breakfast when you go to check on the baby, trying your best to shoo me out the door, though I prefer to stay a moment to watch you together, and I see you holding him against you, your eyes full of the kind of love my parents never reserved for me, yet you have an overabundance of, I wish I could stay home with you, give our son an example of the kind of love that's actually possible in this world, rather than the kind I grew up with. But you shoo me out the door, and I know it's for the best, because I have fifteen clients to meet with and if I can get all of them to agree, we'll officially be the top magical insurance company in the whole of the U.K., and you know this and realize that sometimes work can be important too, and it's the thought that counts, and it's better that I should want to stay with you rather than leave.

When I think of that magical day, two years ago, when you sashayed up to me in the middle of that coffee shop, arms crossed, and smirked before asking that one question that has since changed the course of my entire being and life, I know I'm glad I didn't turn you down, because that would have been the idiot thing to do, and you are no idiot and knew that I'm not either, and for that I'm grateful. To you, dear wife, I say these things so that you'll understand just how I feel. I, Draco Malfoy, took you, Hermione Granger, to be my wife; for that I thank you.

A.N.: I think I like run-on sentences...