Epilogue:

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A count up of the bodies revealed that he'd been right, so Draco did take out a small fortune from Potter's vault- not like he or any of his never-existing descendants would ever need it. But he didn't spend it on Hermione. Not directly at least. He had a feeling she wouldn't want that. Instead he used it to commission a building. He ordered his employees to work hard on it until it was completed, and in the meantime he took her and his friends on that tour they'd spoken of when it felt like they'd been children. They were all disappointed that the wedding wasn't real, and it seemed like in some ways she was as well. One night in Crete once Daphne and Theo had disappeared to their bedroom, closely followed by the legitimately soon to be married Pansy and Marcus, who'd been invited on her account, Blaise and a Greek girl he'd picked up with an Italian line that was close enough to a Greek one to make her chuckle, and Greg and Vince had collapsed on the sun loungers by the pool, the two of them sat alone, dangling their feet into the water and listening to the crash of the waves a little way off.

"Harry's never been patient. He couldn't wait until the objections part, so we never got to finish our vows," she reminded him, accompanying the comment with a pointed look. He rolled his eyes. But he'd always do anything for her.

"Granger: an insufferable, dirty mudblood swot."

"Hey!" She whacked his arm, seemingly genuinely distressed. "This better be going somewhere good!"

He just shushed her. "That's what I used to repeat to myself whenever I saw her. Thanks to my friend Pansy, I've realised that was probably because I was trying to cover up the whole crush on said disgusting lump thing. Mostly." Another whack, but this time it was accompanied by a broad smile as she shook her head. "The truth is that she's incredibly intelligent, confident in herself no matter what other arseholes like me or her ex-friends think, compassionate to a level that makes me worried she'll free every house elf in my family's employ," her hearty guffaw made his own heart sing. "And so beautiful I can't believe it took so long for me to work it out."

She rolled her eyes. "That was laying it on a little thick. I'm not beautiful by any definition of the word."

"Every line of my vows were true to my feelings," he admitted, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear before clearing his throat and looking away. "Your turn."

He could feel her eyes still on him, sending the hairs on his back prickling upwards, but after a few moments she recited her own practised words. "Love is a word that I never really knew the meaning of, though Draco will tell you before anyone else that there's few things I've ever admitted to not knowing. My adoptive parents were never a romantic couple. I know they loved me, but I sometimes wonder if they knew who I really was. If they would have stayed steadfast if they did. My friends didn't. And I was sure that we had one of the tightest knit, unbreakable bonds I'd ever experienced." He squeezed her hand in solidarity and she smiled, but continued. "My only real relationship was with an international Quidditch player, but it didn't go any deeper than dancing and making plans that never came to anything. I never would have expected Draco to be the someone I went further than that with. The someone I could make plans to fulfil with. The someone who'd show me what love really is." She'd been looking out at the sea, but now she turned to him, clearly veering off. "Love isn't about the physical. Snogging and... y'know," she blushed, speech abandoned. "Is all well and good, but relationships that last have to be built on something more. I thought that because I never saw my parents kiss they didn't love each other, but we've never kissed and I know that I," his heart leapt traitorously. He'd told himself, and their parents, she could never feel for him. He'd known it. It was impossible. "I love you."

"Salazar..." he cursed, cutting away from her captivating cinnamon eyes to try and cool himself down. Fate was a cruel mistress. "I want to kiss you more than I ever have before."

"Then do it."

What. He didn't realise he said it aloud until she repeated herself.

"Hermione, you know what that means!

"Yes."

"That's not what you want."

"That wasn't what I wanted," she corrected him. "Now, however, I want you. I will always want you."

He shook his head. "I'm not going to lock you into th-"

"Then I'll lock you into it," she asserted, wrapped her arms around his neck and connected their lips before he could stop her. And once she was there he knew he could never stop her. This wasn't like the innocent first kiss he'd expected from her. Their relationship had been too drawn out for that kind of patience. Their tongues danced perfectly together as if they had never been meant to interact with any other. Their arms wound around each other's bodies, their legs splashing water onto the skin that had just dried out from their earlier swim. Her hands tangled in his hair to pull him into her. They got closer and closer until they were morphing together into one body, desperate and long suffering but finally slotting together and unwilling to let anything or anyone part them. His heart jolted, but he was so close he could hear hers skipping as well. He wasn't exactly sure how this contract worked, if a circle of firey light exploded from them and wrapped them in a circle, but it certainly felt that magical a moment. They kept going until they couldn't breathe anymore and were forced to part, both thankful that they hadn't had this first kiss at a wedding in front of their parents. Or in front of anyone. This was a private moment only for the two of them.

For the rest of their group holiday Draco and Hermione stuck closer together than ever before in a love bubble that had Blaise bemoaning the loss of his Greek girl. He found another in Spain though. Their friends worked out the change in them pretty quickly, despite being wrapped up in their own various love affairs. They still found time to tease them about it. When they got back home Hermione set to work on some legislation to present before her father on the rights of house elves for her new job heading the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Draco hadn't been entirely wrong in his vows, but she wasn't going to free them entirely. She knew now that a lot of the little creatures lived to work and serve, and as someone who loved working hard herself, she somewhat understood that. She still believed they should have breaks and comfortable quarters though. It seemed that a lot of people at the Ministry still came up to her with their hefty apologies for having ever been involved with Harry, or just sympathies for her widespread story. She always thanked them, but found herself longing for another holiday quite quickly, somewhere her name wasn't so linked to pain and tragedy.

After Christmas with their families she got her wish. "I'm taking you on a getaway for your present," Draco informed her on Boxing Day.

Once the bank holiday was over she had testimony to listen to from a witch who claimed her garden had been infested by gnomes, and a whole pile of papers on her desk about a blood eating Kappa that had been illegally brought back from a business trip to Japan and escaped, unleashing havoc on a pub full of slow moving drunk wizards, but a romantic trip with her boyfriend sounded much more appealing. "Just let me send a quick owl to my assistant..."

"Already done," his eyes twinkled mischievously.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you were up to something Mr Malfoy."

He shrugged, held out his arm for her to take and they side along apparated to their destination. The air was thick and humid, and in her fluffy jumper and thick trousers she was absolutely sweltering. Laughing, Draco magicked her clothes into a floral summer dress and his own into a t-shirt and shorts. She'd never seen him in anything so casual, and it was at once unnerving and a turn on. But what really had her attention was their surroundings. They were amongst mountains and rivers that flowed into waterfalls, but they stood on a huge grassy area, looking up at a turreted modern wood and glass building that would probably serve to cool them down just as Hogwarts had frozen them. "Draco this property is gorgeous," she told him, her brow furrowing. "Truly. We have to send Harry a postcard. But it's huge. As large as Hogwarts, I'd say."

"That's good," he said, surveying it with a critical eye. "Because we're going to need to fit a lot of kids in here." For a moment she thought he was suggesting they start procreating like rabbits, then an assembled line of adults filed out of the doors towards them. Without needing to say anything, her look conveyed the clear message: what the hell is going on? "I know you like fighting for creatures' rights," he explained at long last. "But who are we kidding? You love learning more than anything, and inspiring others to, so if you want the job, I think we could be great co-headteachers, giving you time to teach as well if you'd like. This is the Great Dividing Range in Australia, a country where the closest Wizarding school is in Japan, and is highly over-populated." Her hand went over her mouth in shock at what he'd done. "Also a country where your muggle parents happen to have been sent." How had he known that she'd been thinking of them so much lately? "I know you have Bella and Voldemort, but the Grangers were your parents for nearly eighteen years and now it's safe for them to get their memories back. Besides, you can never have too much love, right?"

She grinned as she shook her head in disbelief, pulling him in for a thankful kiss. "You sure can't."

"You don't have to do this," he clarified. "There's no pressure. We have another option for headmistress if-"

"Sometimes you talk too much Draco," Hermione chastised, silencing his lips once more. "Right then," she declared once she was finished, hands on hips. "Let's get to work."

And get to work they did. There were acceptance letters with supply lists to send out; school houses to decide on- they chose Australian creatures in the snake-like Wagyl, the Dirawong that had supposedly been locked in an eternal battle with it, the timid Yowie and the trickster Crow. They also had to assign heads of houses, which the teachers jostled for excitably. There was less to do than she might have imagined, which was all because of Draco. He'd clearly been working on this for a while. Teachers and other staff had all been hired. Syllabuses had been drawn up. Classrooms were fully decorated, stocked and designed. Dorm rooms were similarly prepared and every common room showed vibrant school spirit and fit the traits of that house perfectly, just like they did back at Hogwarts. They worked right up until the train delivering their raring to go students arrived on the fifth of February, but they were ready to go too. Curled into Draco's arm they watched the approach of the black wide-rimmed hats out of their office window, remembering the rare occasions they'd worn their own pointed ones. It was the beginning of a whole new adventure, not just for the excited children, but for the new graduates as well.