I could give you a handful of excuses for my tardiness, but I fear the truth simply is that I'm really bad at keeping track of time. A million apologies! I must admit this one has been hard to write, I seem to have lost my drive for this story somewhere along the way... Also my beta hasn't been available so please do let me know if you spot a mistake!

I hope it can bring some closure, however, as this is the last chapter of this story. Thanks for reading it!

The next morning, Hermione and Draco emerged from their quarters still walking on clouds. When they entered the Great Hall, hand in hand and with broad smiles on their faces, their friends were overjoyed. Blaise ran towards the couple and enveloped the both of them in a very enthusiastic bear hug.

"I am so relieved to see you two have gotten over yourselves!" he exclaimed. "Not that I ever doubted you, of course, but—"

"Blaise," Hermione gasped. "Can't… breathe…"

He let go of them. "Right. Sorry."

"Now that we got that out of the way," Pansy said snidely, elbowing Blaise as she stood next to him, "we have a new problem to fix." She showed them that morning's Prophet.

"What?" Hermione exclaimed when she read the headline.

Latest Lady Malfoy caught fraternizing with Quidditch star… Brightest witch of her age tries to rekindle her romance with Viktor Krum.

The pictures next to the article showed Hermione and Viktor hugging while Draco glared at them, and then another picture of Draco exiting the Three Broomsticks, looking murderous.

"The rest of the article is even worse," Pansy said drily. "The author seems torn between congratulating you on finally realizing Draco is nothing but Death-Eater scum and seeing you as a shameless slut."

Hermione paled. "Seriously? They're ridiculous. I'm sorry, Draco, I truly had not expected it to get this out of hand."

"It's okay," Draco said. "They wouldn't have been able to make this much of a story out of it if I hadn't walked away during our fight. Let's just say that journalist had terrible timing."

"How do we fix this?" Hermione asked, looking at Pansy.

Pansy smiled wryly. "It's time for that interview you two have been postponing for months, I should think."

"I agree," Blaise said. "In fact, I've taken the liberty of arranging a meeting with a journalist this afternoon."

The Malfoys shot him an incredulous look. "You didn't even know if we would still be together until now!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I had faith, Granger," Blaise said, with conviction.

"I guess that interview is our best chance at setting things right," Draco said, although he sounded far from enthusiastic.

"I always thought you loved the spotlight," Harry remarked. "I would have expected you to enjoy interviews."

"Once upon a time I did," Draco answered absentmindedly. "But then the Dark Lord lived in my house, and all I wanted was to be overlooked. Some habits are hard to shake."

Harry looked stricken. "I'm sorry. I can't even imagine how horrible that must've been."

"Anyway," Draco said, as if he only now became aware of what he'd said and wished he hadn't. "At what time and where's the interview, Blaise?"

"In the castle at two o'clock. Potter, I need you to go and convince McGonagall to give us permission to do it here."

After an entreating look from Hermione, Harry complied, albeit grudgingly.

"Do you two need to rehearse what you're going to say?" Ginny asked.

Draco and Hermione exchanged a warm, telling look, both wearing an amused little smile on their face. "I'm sure we'll be convincing," Hermione said, and Draco's smile broadened.

"Although we should probably agree on how and when we got together."

As soon as Harry gave confirmation that their Headmistress wouldn't chase out the reporter when she arrived, Draco and Hermione hurriedly tried to settle on a story, although they somehow managed to disagree about practically every aspect of it.

"Mister and Mrs. Malfoy, I must say I am delighted and honoured to be sitting here with you two," said the reporter, who had introduced herself as Lydia Mespatita. "The readers of the Daily Prophet are dying to know more about how two people who by all accounts hated each other, so suddenly ended up married! You have been tight-lipped about your marriage until now, would I be correct in assuming that the article about your little spat has prompted you to react?"

As per their previous agreement, Draco was the one who answered. "Neither Hermione nor myself are overly fond of having our private lives so extensively discussed by the public, but given the way the press has chosen to misrepresent our marriage, we believed it necessary to clear some things up."

"Of course!" Lydia said, with a smile so fake Hermione would have liked to slap it off her face. "Why don't we start from the beginning! How is it two people from opposite sides, a Muggle-born and a pure-blooded, one siding with Harry Potter and the other with the Dark Lord, managed to fall in love?"

Here, Hermione jumped in. "I would like to make one thing very clear," she said. "Draco may have been branded by Voldemort, but he had no choice in the matter. He was put in an impossible situation, Voldemort threatened to kill his parents if he didn't comply. He managed that as best he could, and let us not forget that he did not kill Dumbledore. Another instance where his true allegiance showed, perhaps less well known, was when Harry, Ron and I were captured and brought to Malfoy Manor. Draco was asked to identify us, but he lied, bought us the time we needed to escape."

Her little impassioned speech hadn't been planned and soon threatened to make her angry, so Draco grabbed her hand and gave her a cautionary squeeze.

"My wife is one of the most compassionate and understanding people I have ever known," Draco said. "And it was her ability to look further than what is obvious that first brought us together. In sixth year, after I'd been marked and given an impossible task, I was a wreck. The change in my behaviour was noticeable, even to my then enemies. When we were partnered in a Potions project, we suddenly had no choice but to spend a considerable amount of time together."

They had chosen potions because they were both convinced that Slughorn would back their lie, enjoying the idea of being the means to bring them together, even if he could not recall ever doing so.

Hermione continued Draco's story. "My first clue that something was really wrong was the fact that he suddenly acted civil towards me. I had expected insults and protest and anger, but instead he didn't seem to care about anything. One day, when he was exceptionally sombre, we got to talking, and we never really stopped."

"They shared a sappy look, acting as though they were both fondly reminiscing about those times.

"It was the darkest year of my life," said Draco. "I thought nothing would ever be okay again, and yet, somehow, she managed to brighten my days and give me hope again. Of course, at that time, it was impossible for us to be anything more than a secret, stealing moments as we could. I could not, dared not tell her the truth about what burden I was carrying. I knew that, the moment she discovered I was a Death Eater, she'd hate me forever. So I delayed my task for as long as I dared, purposefully failing at repairing that vanishing cabinet, up until the Dark Lord said he'd kill my mother if I didn't figure it out."

"When Harry told me about what happened in the Astronomy Tower, I was heartbroken," Hermione said. "I couldn't believe I had been so fooled by him."

"I was sure this was to be the end of us," Draco added, looking appropriately grave. "But I never stopped loving her. When she was captured and brought to the Manor, I was in such a state of shock I couldn't think clearly. I desperately tried to figure out a way to save her, but came up with nothing, and words cannot describe how happy I was when Dobby showed up and whisked her away."

"Star-crossed lovers!" Lydia exclaimed, sounding giddy. "How delightfully romantic! Tell me, how did you reunite?"

"It was only after the final battle that we saw each other again," Hermione said. "When it was all over and Voldemort was finally defeated, I was so relieved to see Draco alive and well that I forgot about my anger and hurt. I gave him the chance to explain, we talked for hours and hours. It wasn't easy at first, but it soon became clear to me that I'd never stopped loving him."

The smile she aimed at Draco then was so sweet it was sickening. He responded in kind, leaning down to drop a kiss on her cheek. Hermione risked a glance at Lydia, convinced the woman would look either disgusted or suspicious, but the reporter appeared to be ecstatic, envious and endeared at the same time.

Hm. This whole charade was easier than she thought. Of course, there was more truth to their story now than would have been the case if they'd given this interview shortly after they married. How everything had changed since then!

After a few more inane questions and fake answers, the interview was finally over.

"I doubt it will make much of a difference," Hermione said. "I think Blaise and Pansy put far too much faith in this idea. I'm sure no one will read it."

Draco smiled and put his arm around her shoulders, dragging her close to his body. "Darling, the stupid things you say sometimes despite your impressive intelligence will never cease to amaze me. I can guarantee you that, by this time tomorrow, almost everyone in the wizarding world will have read our interview."

"Including your mother."

"Who will scold me for not having done it sooner, no doubt."

Thinking of Narcissa was enough to lower their moods. "You're going to tell her, right?" Hermione asked timidly. "The truth, I mean?"

Draco felt a pang of guilt at her insecurity. If she still doubted that, he really had a lot to make up for. "Of course. She won't like it, though. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she offered you a rather hefty sum of money to disappear on me."

"Is that right?" asked Hermione, playful again. "And how much would your purity be worth?"

"More money than you've ever seen, I expect," he answered snootily.

"Hm," Hermione said, sounding interested.

Draco looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Granger, don't tell me you can be bought."

"Doesn't everyone have a price?" She answered, laughing.

"Not you," Draco answered. "You're the exception. No one could ever corrupt you with a bribe."

"And even if they could, no bribe would be large enough to make me disappear on you," said Hermione.

Draco leant down and gave her a short and sweet kiss. He kept his forehead against hers and said: "I don't know what I ever did to deserve you. I think I'm one of the few people who can say that getting drunk in Vegas was the best decision in my life."

Blaise and Pansy turned out to be right; the next day, Hermione and Draco made the front page. They were the talk of the town, and while quite a few had been endeared and impressed by their unlikely love story, there were still a lot of people who disliked the very idea of it. Thankfully, the lovers did not much care for anyone else's opinion, or they might have been quite distraught by the many rude letters they received. With a little help from their friends, this was a problem that was easily taken care of, however, and given the fact that they both received an apprenticeship at the Ministry it would seem their career options had not harmed beyond repair.

The person who caused them the most trouble was Narcissa, once Draco told her the truth. But even that did not last: while she swore she would disinherit Draco and refused to ever see Hermione again at first, her love for her son soon overcame her ingrained pure-blood notions and, with time, she even came to appreciate her daughter-in-law's brilliance and kindness just as Hermione grew rather fond of Narcissa's wit and insight.

How that miracle came to pass, however, is another story.

THE END

A huuuge thank you to every single one of you who has kept me going with reviews, favs and follows! If you want an epilogue, let me know in a review, and you will get one! Although it might take a while before I can post it :)