A/N: If you would have told me last week that I would write this story, and it would fit perfectly into 10 chapters, I would have never believed you. But now that I look back, it really seems like this story wrote itself the whole time. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Honestly it was nice to write something that didn't take 7 years of my life like the last one! I never thought I'd write a story in 4 days though, so I guess I have to thank Black Rose Blue again for the prompt. Very nice!

Anyway, here's the epilogue, so enjoy!

xxx

Six months had passed since Hermione restored Draco Malfoy's soul. The procedure went well, and Draco had no lingering side effects of the soul splintering, though he shied away from alcohol for quite some time afterwards.

Hermione got him through therapy in record time, and he was actually released a month early from the program since his progress "exceeded expectations." In the five months they worked together, Draco came to see Hermione 2 days a week at first, but as he got more accustomed to her, they ended up meeting 3 and sometimes 4 times a week. Hermione didn't mind since he was her only assignment at the time, and Draco wanted to spend time with her since she was currently his only friend.

Draco could still be an ass at times, but he learned to toe the line between snarky and just plain mean. As the time went by, Hermione got used to his arrogance and his bad jokes alike. As they worked on his prejudices, she found that it had a basis in his father's doctrine, rather than in some deep seated hatred he held. It was pretty easy to get him to be kind to muggleborns and halfbloods in public, especially once she started showing him the genetic markers related to inbreeding.

Hermione kept her promise to smile more, and Draco came to adore that smile. The second thing out of his mouth when he woke up after his soul was restored was, "I was right, Granger, you grew up." She had become a woman in the time he was in Azkaban, and without his father's oppression he was free to appreciate her beauty. Though part of him wanted the perfect pureblood bride he'd always been promised, there was another smaller part that said he knew he'd be happier with someone like Granger.

Draco, with the help of Hermione and his inheritance from his father, ended up starting his potion company in those five months. He bought out a space in Diagon Alley within walking distance of both his apartment and Hermione's office. Before the doors had opened, he had contracts pending with the Ministry of Magic, and even with two of the three magical schools in Europe (Hogwarts and Beauxbatons). He was set to succeed, and he couldn't thank anyone more than Hermione.

The grand opening was set for one month after his counseling ended, but he and Hermione had kept in touch. She would go for a run in the morning before breakfast, and he would say hello as he picked up the daily prophet in front of his door. She would often owl him to do lunch, but they never went on anything that could be considered a date. At the end of most nights, she'd knock on the door and he'd let her in to have a chat over a cup of tea. She loved to hear about his plans, and what he had brewed that day, and what new ingredients were on the way from some far-off venue.

One night over tea, he was chatting away about some Indian leaf that could cure the common cold without the use of a pepperup potion, when she suddenly said, 'We should go to India sometime."

"What?" Hermione asked, with a laugh.

"I'm serious. We should go to India," he said, nodding excitedly.

"I don't get paid enough to go to Scotland, let alone India," Hermione scoffed, taking a sip of her tea.

"I would pay. It doesn't matter to me. I just think you would love it there. It's so exotic and beautiful," he replied.

"I couldn't let you do that, Draco," she said softly. "Friends don't just take friends across the continent for free," she explained.

"What if I don't want to just be your friend," Draco said softly, taking her hand in his.

Hermione was floored. She didn't really know what to say, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Hermione, you saved my life. You pulled me from the gutter when I thought there was nowhere else to go. You gave my life meaning and hope and you taught me what joy was really like. I owe my entire being to you, and it makes me ache to think of being apart from you. I really care about you, and I think in time you could care for me too."

"I care for you already, Draco. I can't say I haven't thought about it, but for the last five months, I've been your counselor. It's been professionally immoral for anything to happen between us, so I just assumed nothing ever would. Not to mention my... blood status."

"Are you kidding?" Draco exclaimed, grabbing her other hand as well and holding them both. "None of that matters to me anymore. I don't care who your parents are, even though I'd like to meet them, don't get me wrong. I don't care who we were five months ago or the years before that at Hogwarts.

"All I care about is you and my company, and honestly between those two, you would come first. Please just give me a chance. Come away with me to India. If at the end of the trip you don't want to be with me, we'll drop it and stay friends. But I won't skip over this chance with you. I know we need to try."

Hermione thought about his words, and tried to organize her thoughts.

"You'd look even more beautiful than normal in a sari," he teased, tickling her upper thigh.

"Okay, I'll go," Hermione consented with a smile. "But I demand we go to some educational locations while we're there."

"Of course," Draco placated, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Anything you want," he kissed her cheek, and then laced a trail of kisses along her chin line. He pulled her chin towards him with two fingers, saying, "As long as you're with me, I'm sure we'll have a great time," and then he kissed her soft lips, relishing in their taste.

It was their first kiss of many, and over the next two weeks, they shared kisses in front of the Taj Mahal, on a beach in Goa, in the shadows of the Himalayas in Kashmir, everywhere they got the chance. The most beautiful kiss they shared was in Kanyakumari, where they watched the sunset and the moonrise at the same time. It was there, that Hermione agreed to date him. He had won her over with his romance and his spirit. She guessed he won her over with his soul as well.