So I have been absent for a while. I have made and deleted the ending to this story several times because nothing seems right, even now I debate ending it like this, but here it is.

The last chapter of Lady Bluebell, the way I hope such a dark story can end.

Thank you,

RoseFromtheGrave

It was a warm gentle day when the pain started. Hermione managed to keep everyone from noticing until the contractions became closer and closer. Harry was the first to notice, he was always perceptive when it came to her feelings. He started into pacing in a frantic circle, but she found herself too calm to care. It was strange how calm she felt.

They fussed around her, boiling water and pulling linens out of the cupboards. Fleur's hands were shaking as she nervously promised Hermione that she could help, she had seen many babies born before, but Hermione stood up and started to waddle around, easing the pain until it was just a dull thrum that sat in her lower back.

Oh, and like any Malfoy the baby decided that it would be a pain in the butt as well. Oh no, they wanted to demand all the attention that they could. Hours in and she had a beautiful babe rest on her breast and yet the contractions still pushed on, she screamed as another surprise decided to heave from her body, wanting to be with their twin.

"Well I'll be damned!" Harry yelled, holding the first babe close while the other was finally born.

"They're beautiful, Hermione." Fleur smiled as she cleaned up the baby girl.

Hermione smiled back, finally feeling like she could rest, but she continued in her strange calm until her little girl screamed out again. Suddenly she was jolted from her fixed state, everything rushing at her in one solid moment till she was laughing, crying and shaking.

"You should get some rest." Fleur said as she swayed with the bundled baby in her arms.

"No, my children, please." Hermione reached her hands out. The two babes nestled onto her chest again. She marveled at them, twins, a boy and girl with white blonde tufts of hair and dark little eyes that have yet to take color. A with those two quiet beautiful children nestled next to her Hermione slept better than she had in months.

It made it harder when two weeks later she left them with a wet nurse in the small cottage and strapped on her light leather armor. They cried and screamed as she restrung her bow. Harry and Ronald protested vehemently, but she wasn't going to use her children as a reason to stay, not that she didn't respect Fleur when she bowed out of the fight.

"If I don't come back, leave them in Harry's care. If He wins then go into deep hiding, they are never to know who their parents were. And if none of us come back-"

"'ermione!" Fleur aspirated. "I will take 'zem. You're coming back."

"Take care of them." Hermione said with the last of her ability to speak before tears leaked out of her eyes. She kissed them both on the foreheads, soothing their cries momentarily before leaving with Harry, Ronald, and Bill.

It wasn't until they stood in the small village next to Hogwarts did they finally stop moving for a moment. "Let's end this." Harry said looking more of a leader than he ever had before.

They had information telling them that Dumbledore's brother Aberforth had a way into Hogwarts. They weren't there long before a head poked out of a worn wooden door and ushered them in. The family resemblance was strong, and she could see that Harry was affected by it. He directed them to the passage, signaling the young girl in it to retrieve someone and Neville appeared at the opening.

The reunion was short, the battle was coming and they were running on borrowed time. The trio split up to search, finally coming together again at the room of requirement. Harry raced around looking, mumbling that he had been it in the past.

They were deep into the hunt for the remaining horcruxes when Draco appeared in the center of a corridor. It was like the air was sucked out of the room. Ron and Harry held up their wands, but Hermione waved them off as her tired and exhausted husband walk to her. He finally reached her, he eyes laden with stress. "My child…I can't feel it."

"They're alive."

"They?"

"Twins," she smiled. "A boy and girl."

Draco nodded, a new strength seemed to well into him. "Snape wants to speak to you, Potter. He said it was important."

"And why should I trust you?"

"Do you think I want this kind of life for my children?" Draco sneered. "He's in the shrieking shack."

"Where's my wife?" Harry asked, fishing for a reason to trust this man again.

"Safe. The Dark Lord wanted me to bring her along. I told him that she managed to escape, she's with someone trusted."

"Who?"

"I can't tell you till this is over, Potter. We all know you're shit at occlumency."

"Whose side are you on, Malfoy?"

"I want the Dark Lord dead, Potter. You are the one that is supposed to do it, so can you do us all a favor and stop pointing your damn finger and kill him already?" he growled. "You can have me hung and quartered after the war is over."

Harry sighed and looked between his friends. They had been reluctant to split up, but knew the time was coming. Hermione pulled her bow off of her back, steeling herself for the fight. "Be quick, and come back in one piece."

As Harry left Hermione, Ronald, and Draco headed out for the fight. Hermione let her flames dance along her arms, a feeling so welcome and freeing. One climbed its way to the tip of her arrow, igniting the buddle of wrapping she attached to it. Once in the main courtyard she shot the arrow high into the air, cutting through the smoke and ashes, the screams and spells. It landed on the bridge connecting the courtyard to the forest, and caught on fire in a second. People on their side knew to get off the bridge immediately. Giants and beasts howled and roared as their massive weight was no longer supported by the bridge and it started to collapse into the ravine below. Ronald ran to wrangle there forces and draw them back.

Draco's breath caught as his beautiful wife stood facing the bright blue signature flames. She was a vision, an inspiration, a symbol for the people below. And oh, how he had wronged her. He would make this right, somehow, if it took his entire life to do it.

Voldemort's voice boomed through the castle demanding Harry come to him. His voice rang through all of their ears, echoing through the corridors. They huddled together near their dead. Harry didn't come back for nearly an hour, but when he did there was a determined look in his eyes. "I'm going."

"Bloody hell you are!" Ronald yelled, eyes already red and puffy from the death of his brother. "You knew, didn't you?"

"I'll go with you!"

"Kill the snake and then him." He wrapped his arms around Hermione. "Be strong."

Draco was crying without a care in the world as he held his beautiful pink skinned blonde daughter. She giggled at his touch, brown eyes wide and watching him as if he were the only person in the world. She reached up to smack his cheek, not fully in control of her limbs yet.

The twins ran through the room, terrible noise left in their wake, followed closely by the eldest of the Potter clan. His wife rounded the corner after them, face red with exhaustion and hair wild as ever. She demanded that they stop where they were and everyone in the room froze on command, she was still a force to be reckoned with. "It is bathing time," she said glaring back at the twins' trademark sneers, "And that means you too James Sirius Potter!" The boy had been trying to inch out around the corner of the room.

"In the middle of the day, love?" Draco asked, knowing he would get an ear full for it.

"We have clan meetings in two hours. Honestly, Draco if you have forgot-"

"How could I forget that my house is about to be overrun with Weasleys?" he grimaced.

The years had been good for them since the kingdoms had disbanded and they created one unified government, but with his wife at the near center of it all of the meetings and negotiations he had to frequently share his home with all manners of people.

"What was that about Weasleys, Malfoy?" Ginerva walked into the room with a curved eyebrow.

"Nothing of course-"he paused seeing a pronounced bump growing on her. "Do you and Potter do anything else?"

"Just one more godchild for Uncle Draco." Ginerva smiled rubbing the small but showing bump. She had fought her husband for weeks about accepting Draco back into the fold after the war. She would have been killed with her husband had Draco not contacted Andromeda to keep her safe.

The group gathered around the long table, ready to debate the future of Hogwarts as a school and where the actual base of government should be formed, but something Draco had taken to doing was stepping back to admire how large his family had grown. It had taken them years to forgive him, he still hasn't forgiven himself, but he had been raised an only child, but somehow ended up with dozens of brothers and sisters and the warmest home lit by beautiful bluebell flames.