Chapter 24: Epilogue
"Well, we've certainly had an interesting seven years," Draco said warmly, humor glinting in his voice. He smirked out at the audience as they laughed at his joke, leaning his arms against the podium. Hermione stood close to him to read the speech they'd written out on parchment the previous night, and she smiled with pride as he continued the opener. "We started off as first years, divided and ignorant of the world and all of its complexities. As second years, we experienced our first real brush with danger and learned the hard way what it meant to not trust each other."
"In our fourth year," Hermione picked up, leaning closer to the magical microphone on the podium as Draco backed up, his hand placed on her back. "We were forced to grow up faster than we'd expected when our friend reached the end of his life at the hands of evil." She paused, finding Harry's face in the crowd. He gave her a comforting nod, green eyes bright in the warm summer sun. "And in our fifth year, we were plunged into a brutal and petrifying war."
"Many of us lost family, friends, and loved ones in the months that followed," Draco said, his voice soft. "And they will stay with us always. But what we lost, we found again in each other by closing the divides that separated us for much of our educational career at Hogwarts." He placed his hand over Hermione's on the podium, and looked at her instead of the audience when he continued. "We finally began to achieve the inter-house unity encouraged by our Professors, and while it was no easy task, here we all are together."
"In our seven years at Hogwarts, we've battled basilisks, Dementors, and Dark Magic," Hermione said. "We've seen quidditch accidents, corrupt Ministries, and duels. But we've also had grand balls, where the happiness outweighed the sorrow, and beautiful days in the summer sun, such as today. And through the tragedy and the joy, we as a class have supported each other and forged amazing friendships that will last a lifetime."
"So although we graduate today," Draco resumed, entwining Hermione's fingers with his own. "We will never forget Hogwarts or the people we have met here. We are all a family, dysfunctional and insane, but a family," there were chuckles from the audience, and he grinned, "And we will forever be tied together by our experiences and our past." He looked at Hermione, his eyes urging her to finish.
"And so, with great honor and happiness do I say, class of 1998," she caught Draco's eye, and he joined her as she yelled out, "We did it!"
The audience stood up with a unanimous roar, throwing their caps up in the air. Hermione giggled as Draco turned to face her, picking up her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of her palm, holding her wrist so that he could see the engagement ring sparkling on her finger.
"I love you, Mya," he whispered against her skin, and she blushed, finally at peace.
"I love you too, Draco." He wrapped his arm around her waist and stood by her side to watch their friends whoop and cheer out in the audience, finally free of school.
"So, what happens now?" he asked quietly, his face serious and maybe a little scared.
"Life happens now," Hermione told him teasingly, and he rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about it, not now. For now just…" she sighed contentedly, and he watched her lips move delicately. "Just enjoy the moment."
Fin
A/N: So! I guess this fic is… over? Wow. Huh. To be honest, I didn't think I'd ever finish it, you know? Just never seemed possible, or it was so far off in the distance that I couldn't really make it out. Well, I guess that time is now, and I better make my thanks.
Thank you to all of the reviewers, seriously, every single one of you. By the time I've finished this epilogue, I have 1709 reviews, which is a massively huge amount. And I have over 749 people reading this story, that being the total number of story alerts, and there are 349 people who have me on their author alert list. And if I may be greedy for a second, if all of you write a review for this epilogue, I'll hit 2000 reviews, which would be absolutely amazing. So… please?
There are a bunch of reviewers in particular who I would really love to thank, so I'll try to name as many as I can here. Periwinkle4444, I love you and you're amazing. Cckeimig, my beta, who put up with a massive amount of grammar issues and other silly stuff. A few people have reviewed every chapter religiously, and I can't name everyone but a few include HgBookworm, macaday me a nut, Victoria Humblydum, mistymixwolf aka Perch, Michelle Felton, lilkyonkyon, Bellatrix 06, Emerald 27, dan-lovr, VBC, GalaxyStorme, and so on.
So guys, I guess this is it for Magnetic Attraction. But I urge you to review, write, and go read some of my other stuff! The one fan fic I'm completely devoted to is a Tom Riddle/Voldemort/Hermione/Draco fic that is totally messed up but incredibly awesome, if you guys need something else to read. It's called Weak. And of course, you can read any of the stuff on my favorites list, I promise you that it's all amazing. And if you guys want to read any of my original fiction, which I've written a lot of, you can find that on my Deviant Art page. My user name is ellamsrlb, and you can find my page at ( http : / / ellamsrlb . deviantart . com / ), just remove the spaces.
Thanks again! Cheers!
-Ellamalfoy8