"That's the ring he gave you for Christmas," she was saying, and Hermione was staring at it with sorrowful eyes.

"Why did he give me a ring? Were we dating then? I hate not knowing this!"

"No. He just really liked you and it was his subtle way of saying so. You, of course, saw that and kept telling me just how amazing it was that he waited a whole 'nother month to ask you out."

She shook her head. "I still can't believe this."

"If my stupid brother hadn't let it all spill we'd all be much happier right now," Ginny grumbled.

"Hey, she needed to know," defended Harry.

"Well, he could have done it a less traumatising way."

"I can't believe you'd keep this from me too!" Hermione exclaimed and they both turned to her.

"Well you asked for it," Harry pointed out. "Ron, Ginny and I knew you were unhappy without him and Draco was an absolute mess. Of course it wasn't easy, but we love you. We wanted you to be happy."

Hermione twirled the ring around, watching it sparkle.

"The stone is supposed to catch any light, no matter how dark it is, and it sparkles in it. Gives off the impression that it glows in the dark sometimes."

"What's the inscription say?" she asked, noticing the letters on the inner part of the silver band.

"Tu es mon lumière. You are my light."

Hermione sniffed. "Does everyone know French except for me too?" she asked weakly.

"No, Hermione. He told you who told us when he gave it to you. Of course, he wouldn't tell you till after he asked you out. You told me it was sort of an insult to your intelligence since you looked it up at the library the next day. You didn't tell him that of course." Ginny smiled fondly.

Hermione swallowed thickly. "Does he really love me?"

"Merlin yes. Harry and I could scarcely believe that you had dated him for so long till we saw it end. Draco's agony was really heartbreaking and yours too. You two are very good at torturing yourselves."

Hermione grimaced. "Yes, I noticed that."

"Do you—I mean, do you like him at all?" asked Harry tentatively.

"Yes, I do. I just can't believe that he'd ever do something like that to me. It's—"

"Yes, he was stupid. But maybe this taught both of you that you both had to grow up into yourselves before your relationship could go any further. He loves you desperately, Hermione. If you fancy him, build that trust again no matter how long it takes. Give it a chance."

"How did you all suddenly get onto his side?" Hermione asked bitterly.

"We care about him too," Ginny said softly, sounding an awful like her mother. "He's become our friend in the last year or so. It's funny that it was you giving us this 'give it a chance' talk just a couple years earlier." She smiled and squeezed her friend's hand.

Hermione pulled away and put her head in her hands. She sniffed. "I want to give him a chance, I really do; I just never want him to erase my memory again."

"Believe me," Harry exclaimed. "I won't let it happen this time. I never want to keep anything that huge from my best friend ever again."

She was silent. "Did all of you know he was going to do this to me?"

Ginny bit her bottom lip. "Honestly, not all of us. I—I did see that recipe for the Selective Memory Potion on your desk before you gave it to him briefly, but I didn't think he'd actually carry it out. Ron had no clue till Pansy let us in on the secret, and she knew Draco well enough to at least keep him from killing himself. He tried to buy it without Pansy's knowledge from another apothecary but, you know, their circles run small. During the delivery, Pansy intercepted it, tampered with it, and sent it to him."

"Thank God for her."

"Yeah," Harry nodded, "but you did threaten us never to mention his name to you ever again before he gave you the potion so that's another reason why we never mentioned Draco to you. I didn't even know that something was different until after Draco was taken to the hospital."

"How did you two find him?"

"Pansy again. She was very useful during this whole process."

Hermione put her head in her hands again. "Harry, Ginny—I don't know what to do!"

"Hermione—"

"Yes, I know you want me to get back together with him. But it's going to take a long time to gain my trust back."

"I'm sure he'll understand that completely."

Harry stood up and embraced his friend tightly. "Everything will be alright, don't you worry," he said soothingly.

"Thanks for listening you guys," Hermione sniffed. "But I still need to think it over."

"Take all the time you need."

All-the-time-you-need turned out to be one horrid week. Hermione tossed and turned every night, thought about it till she nearly made herself sick, turned paler and paler as the days went on, and had circles under her eyes. Then she owled him.

The knock on her door signaled his arrival and she opened the door to her flat to let him in.

"All right, Hermione?" he said.

"Hello Draco. Come in," she replied dully. He did so, looking concerned.

"What's wrong?"

"I…I wanted to apologise for ignoring you this whole time."

"No, don't be! Merlin knows I deserve it after all that happened."

Hermione shook her head.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione. I really am. I never should've given you that potion. I was rash, idiotic, and just plain…stupid. I wasn't thinking and I was all wrapped up in my grief and didn't think of how it would affect you."

"Yes, that's true…but I know I asked for it, so there's really no reason for you to apologise."

He took her hand. "I'm so sorry. If you want I have a Pensieve you can use if you'd like. It's got my memories of our relationship in it."

Hermione nodded. "Draco, I've been thinking a lot about our…relationship." He could see the sparkle in her hand as she drew something out of her pocket. "And I wanted to give this back to you."

Draco's face fell as he took back the ring. "Oh."

"I'm not in a position where I can accept that."

"I understand."

"But it's your turn to convince me."

His ears perked up and his surprised grey eyes met hers. "What?"

"Do you really love me?"

"Hermione, I can't even express how much I love you. I'd give anything to be with you again. Anything."

"But it ended badly last time. What if history repeats itself yet again?"

"I can't promise anything, but I will try my hardest to make it different. I swear it."

She stared at the ground for a long time. "I don't know."

"I swear Hermione, even if it takes a lifetime to convince you. I—I'll even fight to be with you. No matter what it takes. Not even the Dark Lord coming back could change my mind."

"Careful what you say," Hermione said wryly.

"I swear it, Hermione. I mean it with all my heart." He took her hand again. "Please. Please believe me. I miss you so much. I can't—I can't bear a life without you." His voice was thick with emotion and Hermione could hardly look at him without wanting to cry.

"Draco, I—I still want to see the Pensieve. And I can't help it but I like you an awful lot. Even though our last relationship sounds like a horrible soap opera."

He pressed his lips together.

"I'll try my hardest too. In our relationship, I mean."

Hope filled his eyes and he nodded eagerly. "I'm a fast learner. Our last relationship ended because of a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication. We were too sarcastic and didn't tell each other everything. And I wasn't myself in the beginning, which I should've been. I just needed to mature, know how to present myself to a post-war world in which I was the baddie. But I know now, really, and I'll make sure to tell you absolutely everything this time." He kissed her hand.

"We'll see where it goes. And if it ends, it ends." She squeezed his hand, feeling her heart lift. It seemed impossible to keep herself on the floor when he was around. "But I thought you said you didn't believe in love?" she teased. She could feel herself brightening again now that her decision had been made.

"I don't believe I'll ever love anyone else but you. It's been almost a year and a half now and I'm still not over you."

"Keep that up." Hermione smiled.

He smiled back, encouraged by her reaction. "Will do. If you'll try it with me."

She paused for a moment, contemplating her decision. And then she nodded. "I will. It's hard to think of how terribly our relationship ended in the past. But I guess the past is the past. Even if it ends in the future." She smiled encouragingly. "For now let's just live in the present."

It was September of 1999. Four months and a year after he had defeated You-Know-Who and the boy who lived wasn't going to live at school any longer. He and his best friend had decided to forgo school and take the opportunity offered to work at the Ministry. The third in their trio was not quite as enthusiastic to skip a whole year of school just to work early. So she stayed behind.

Classes were going to be held in a different location since Hogwarts was still undergoing major repair. There were many tents dotting the hillside where classes were as well as the offices of the professors. Several more tents had been put up around the castle and were big enough thanks to expanding charms to hold everyone in one house. It was also convenient that there weren't many students in attendance that year because of the fear of You-Know-Who suddenly coming back to life. The Death eaters themselves didn't make it any easier or safer to have children there.

The swotty girl didn't mind it, however, and was instead excited to finally be back for her last year of school. It didn't matter where she was, really, as long as she was back in that learning environment. She knew one didn't get to have such a life forever.

She was at Flourish & Blotts one rainy afternoon to pick up her school books. She rushed into the store and shook her soaking coat. She called herself a native of London and yet she didn't carry an umbrella around with her on cloudy, humid days. Maybe it was her excitement that kept her instinct from coming out.

Anyhow, she was there and that was what mattered, wet or not. She began to peruse through the books and smiled at their familiar titles. Spending one whole year and four months away from school had been tiring and yet it had been nice to spend so much time with her parents. She hadn't seen them for months prior and retrieving them from Australia had been mental and quite an unhappy ordeal. But that was over too and she tried not to think of it again.

The bell on the door rang as someone else entered and she ignored it when she found the Gilderoy Lockhart section. She remembered having such a schoolgirl crush on him in second year. Till she realised who he really was. She smiled. Such memories increased her affection for the wizarding world despite all the war she had just gone through.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned, the faint smile still on her face. Then it dropped.

"Uh, hello Granger. Long time no see," he said in a rush. He removed his hand from his black glove and held it out to shake hers. It took her a moment to realise what he was doing and shook the offered hand, still in shock.

"Hello, Malfoy."

"What brings you here?" he breathed. It sounded like he had run here or something.

"Um, shopping for school books. What are you doing here?"

"Same, except I'm not going back to school. I'm going to be tutored at home. I don't think, after a war like that, that I can really go back."

Reality was coming back to her and she frowned. "Why are you here talking to me, really?"

"Look, I—I just came to apologise for my behaviour back in school. And I didn't want to take part in that war by the end of it and it really opened my eyes to what was going on. I'm sorry for everything. I couldn't even go to the Memorial Ball because I was so ashamed of my actions."

"As you well should've been," she noted sternly.

He lowered his head in a very uncharacteristic gesture. "I'm sorry for your losses in the war, for everything. I never meant…well, I guess I meant it all at the time. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened to your friends, what happened to my friends, for what happened to London."

"You talk as if the whole war was your fault." She sighed. "It wasn't your fault. You might've joined his side, but repenting for your actions is a step to forgiveness. Mine, anyway." She smiled. "And you seem genuine enough."

"I am, honestly I am." He looked at her earnestly and she nodded.

"I know. And I forgive you, not that I'm really one to be forgiving." They stood in a slightly awkward silence for a moment. Her eyes brightened and she smiled. "Well, since we're both looking for textbooks, why don't we go searching?" She felt awkward being so friendly to her childhood enemy, but stuck her hand out. "Can I see your book list?"

"Uh, sure," he stuttered slightly and handed it to her. She stared at it then compared it with hers.

"Looks like we're looking for nearly the same books. Come on. We'll find the Herbology books first. They're in the section closest to us." She smiled and he smiled back, unable to believe that she had been so forgiving.

It took a bit longer than she had anticipated and over an hour had been spent talking to him and getting to know him and his perspective on the war so much better. She had to continue to remind herself of who he still was, but by the end of the hour and a half, she could almost consider him a friend.

As they stood next to the door, their only shield to the rain, she sighed. "Well, I'll owl you during the school year, if you'd like."

"Yeah, sure." He smiled back, so different from his usual sneer. "I'll owl you back."

"Okay." She took off her jacket, ready to run through the rain with her purchases, when he stepped a little closer.

"Want me to walk you home? Or at least to wherever you're headed next? The rain's awful and I've got an umbrella." It was black, typical of him.

She smiled. She couldn't pass up such an offer. "Okay, yeah. I'd like that. I don't fancy getting wet a second time today."

"Good thing I'm here, then," he said and smiled and she followed him out, shielded by his umbrella. He escorted her to the Leaky Cauldron and, once inside, she turned and thanked him.

"I'll be good from here," she said. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome. I hope to see you again soon."

She nodded. "Maybe we can meet at the Three Broomsticks or something in between classes and homework and all."

"Do you know if you're going to be Head Girl yet?"

"No, not yet, but I expect it."

He chuckled. "I'm sure nearly everyone is going to be shocked if you're not. Even the professors. They'd be mental not to give it to you."

She smiled. "Thanks. Well, I should be off now. My parents are waiting for me."

"Yes, of course. I'll see you later."

"See you."

She waved goodbye and walked back out into the rain on the muggle street and thought of him all the way home.

She pulled her head out of the Pensieve and sighed. There were so many points where she just wanted to strangle the idiots, but they had been so in love. Ginny put Hermione's Pensieve away and looked at the wedding ring on her finger. Maybe it was because Ron seemed destined to be unmarried all his life like Charlie that Ginny wasn't one hundred percent behind Draco and Hermione (like she wasn't one hundred percent behind dragons), but Draco seemed to fill the void, the little cracks that her brother hadn't been able to fill. And they were happy. Almost as happy as she and Harry were. She climbed down from the attic and closed it up along with a strong, imperceptible spell and went downstairs to the kitchen. The Pensieve's owner was there with a little smile on her face as she cooked an omelette. Her frizzy brown hair was pulled back in a plait and her wand was in her apron pocket. "Where have you been?"

"My room. Where's Draco?"

"Playing Wizard's Chess with Ron in the living room," Hermione replied. Gin didn't miss the sparkle in her eye. "Why're you giving me that look?" asked Hermione curiously.

Ginny continued smiling. "Nothing."

Hermione and Draco could break up a thousand times, threaten to leave each other five hundred times, erase their memories a hundred times, and still come back together by some miracle. It was inevitable. Almost as inevitable as the glaring fact that Draco and Hermione were something close to soul mates.

Just maybe.

~fin~

A/N: I think I was postponing my post just because I didn't want this story to officially end. But now it has, and I sincerely hope the ending hasn't disappointed. It just seemed the best way. That way you know it's a happy ending after all. Sort of. :) And if you didn't catch it (no one probably did, but that's OK), I was inspired by the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it! It's fantastic. Anywho, review and share your love (or hatred (hopefully there's no hatred)) and your thoughts. I always, always appreciate them. I love you all and thank you so much for sticking with this story till the end. That in itself is quite a feat. Au revoir, mes excellent lecteurs!