When Draco was feeling much better, the Malfoys held a small gathering to celebrate his good health. Unfortunately, the Malfoy's definition of small was under a hundred guests. Even after the war, with all of their losses, Lucius could still rack up a group of influential people to attend his party. While most of the guests were Slytherins and friends of the Malfoy's, Lucius also insisted she invited some of her friends who under the pretence of thanking them for their help with Draco. But she knew better. He just wanted the Golden Trio at his party.

As the night wore on, Hermione found that her earlier fatigue was fading. She had been so tired that her body simply gave up trying to tell her so.

"Hello love," Draco appeared by her side once again. She had left him earlier when he entered a conversation about his opinion of the direction Malfoy Enterprise is heading. While she was interested in politics and economics, she had been too tired to follow.

"Hi," she replied dreamily as he handed her a glass of Champaign. Sometimes she still found herself catching her breath at how charming and handsome he was.

"You left me," he accused teasingly.

"You could hold your own," she placated him with a sweet smile.

"I'd like to show you something," Draco told her as he led her to the solarium. In the evening light, under the stars and moon, they plants and flowers appeared silver and translucent. It all looked so surreal.

Hermione's words caught in her throat as she stared at the sight before her. Sometimes she'd forget that she now lived in a magical world that was filled with beautiful and fascinating things for her to not understand, but simply marvel at.

"This garden was a gift from Herbology Master Viridus Deschamps to my mother and father as a wedding present," he explained. "The plants bloom beautifully during the day, but at night under the moon light, they become… this, Le Jardin de Merveille."

"This… is unearthly," Hermione finally settled on the right word. She moved to touch a silver fern leaf that reacted by closing its leaves.

"Come," Draco bid her as he ducked into a wall of leaves and disappeared.

Hermione walked towards where he disappeared, she did not feel very confident about walked through such a dense wall of leaves. Had Draco really gone through this way?

Suddenly a hand emerged from the shrubs, followed by a blond head. Draco looked at her expectantly, "Well come on then!"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her to him.

She emerged to find herself in a large clearing with a pond. Much like the solarium everything in here was also glowing. The water shimmered like diamonds and the smell of the nearby cherry blossoms enveloped her.

"How…" she began but she knew the answer would be 'Magic'. Much like the Room of Requirement and Wizarding Tents. "This is marvellous, Draco."

"I discovered this place as a child once," he told her. "I came here to escape when I was 11 and our family was going through a rough time. I almost didn't believe this place was real. But last night I remembered it."

"Your memory," she marvelled at this strange turn of event. "Could it have been…?"

"Elf magic," Draco agreed. "I believe so. I have never been as clear of mind as now. I remember things that have happened to me as a toddler, both in reality and in my head. It was a little unnerving at the beginning but it's all clear now. The curse I was hit with, the memories, you… It makes sense."

She listened to him attentively, captivated by his tone of enlightenment.

Draco sat down onto the lush green-silver grass and leaned against a large willow tree. She followed suit and rested her head on his chest as he help her.

"Tell me about it," she asked him.

"First, I believe you should know that my fictional memorise were a result of so my desires for my life that have manifested itself due to the curse. I'd like for you to know where they came from as to have no more secrets between us.

"As a young boy, I have watched my parents fall in love from an arranged marriage. My world revolved around them and their love for me and each other. It does not happen often in arranged marriages. I had promised myself that one day, I'd have what they had. I'd find a beautiful and elegant woman and marry her. And that would be that. Though now looking back, I was quiet a naïve child to believe in the fairy tale I had been living in.

"However, due to my father's ties with Tom Riddle, tensions grew between my parents. I watched as the fear of something unknown and unseen was destroying my father. One night, I heard my parents arguing loudly and ran. I somehow found my way here. I thought I had imagine it all the next day. So as time passed, I would picture myself here every time I felt sad or alone. Of course, in my imagination, things here did not remain static. More creatures arrived in my imaginary meadow by the lake. People I'd met briefly who were nice to me would also appear in my imagination."

He paused as Hermione's mouth forms a perfect little 'O' or understanding.

"Yes, it does sound a little pathetic, doesn't it?" he kid deprecatingly.

"I don't think that's pathetic," Hermione reassured him with a gentle on his chest. "I think it is a young boy's mechanism of coping."

"Well, as I grew I found escapism in novels. Occasionally I'd read muggle fiction. It made no difference to me if they were muggle or not. Though as a child I did believe in some of the things my parents had told me. That we were better. That the Malfoy's were a Pureblood aristocracy and we were simply better mannered and better raised. When I met Potter, I wanted to befriend him. I wanted to be great and be associated with greatness. Silly, now that I think about it.

"When he became friends with Ron, I was aghast. The boy could not even eat with his mouth closed. He lacked manners and was a buffoon. I think I was hurt then. It does not excuse my antagonizing actions and words towards you, but I hope that you could forgive me.

"Then there was you. I did not think much of you as you were a girl and a muggleborn. I hadn't really noticed you until you answered those potions questions correctly in class. As time went on, you became my academic rival. I would strive to work hard to outwit you in class while not appearing too petty. But you were slowly destroying my perception of muggleborns as inferior. In all aspects, you were better than me. Perhaps… I had more connections and had better hair."

She snorted and swatted his chest playfully.

"Anyway," he continued. "That summer, a new character appeared in my meadow. You. However, I knew nothing of muggles and didn't know how you would act. While it would have been easy to create a fictional you to be my punching bag in the summer, I could not. So the next year, I tried to get to know you a little better. But I was a Slytherin, there was no way I'd ever openly go and ask to be your friend, regardless of how much I wanted to. So I watched. It was pitiful. Had I just gone up to you and been honest about trying to be friends… well I'm not quite sure what would have happened."

Hermione made a noncommittal sound and thought about it. Would a little 12 year old Hermione been open to said friendship, she couldn't be sure.

"Don't think too hard about it," Draco reassured her. "It nearly drove little Draco insane thinking about our would-be friendship. And when you punched me, I was… well I wasn't very surprised. I knew you were angry and I was a tosser. Maybe it was the punch itself, it bloody hurt! Or maybe it was the juxtaposition of our relationship in real life to the one I wanted. But I spent the next day thinking of ways we could have used this event to become friends. But soon, school work caught up with me and I'd forgotten all about you. That was until summer started.

"That summer, you became the voice of reason in my meadow. You wouldn't let me be morose or do anything stupid. And I could talk to you for hours about potions and literature. Though thinking back, that was all me talking to me. I wasn't all that right in the head… Maybe it was the punch."

While his tone was teasing, Hermione worries whether it was really the punch or not.

"I'm only kidding love," he told her. "I knew you weren't real. But I like to imagine what it would have been like to have such an intelligent friend. And someone as loyal as you, someone as brave as you. It was just something to pass time in the summer. What with the rise of the Tom Riddle, things were just getting worse at home. My parents were in over their heads and I could tell. I knew that soon, one day, I'd have to follow in their steps. It was a bleak though.

"I was miserable in fourth year. I also discovered sex in fourth year. Not something you probably want to hear much about. I was attracted to girls and living with them… I slept with Pansy on and off since fourth year, but there was never anything between us, other than a warm body. I went with her to the Yule Ball. She wanted us to be an item for connections, of course. But we were miserable. While, you… you shone like a bright beacon of light. How I wished I'd been that Hungarian. I imagines what it would be like to be me on the bottom of those stairs, waiting for you. I wanted to be the one you smiled at. To feel your hand in mine. My hands around your waist."

Hermione could feel the yearning in his voice and squeezed his hands, "I never knew…."

"Hahah…" he laughed humourlessly. "I think that was the point. I was too proud to actually admit any of this. I was Draco Malfoy, Sex-God, Slytherin Prince, Heir to the Malfoy line, and a total pompous ass. And all that aside, with the war brewing in the background, it would have been dangerous to align myself with you. But it didn't mean I couldn't imagine what it could have been.

"When I was brought in front of the Dark… Tom, I had lost it. He exhubed evil and my parents were just pawn in his game. By the end of fifth year, I had also become a pawn. I was to be the obedient child of a Death Eater. I had to betray Hogwarts and most importantly you. I was that or death. There was a point when I stopped caring about my own life. I was a pathetic lackie. But I had a mother and father… I had to live for them. That kept me going for a while until I just sort of became an Inferi… I was moving and breathing, but I no longer knew what my purpose was or what I was doing.

"I'd lost my fantasy world. I could no longer hold onto whatever future I had wanted, like mother and father's. Because happy endings didn't happen. My desire for your friendship seemed trivial and I had tried to erase you from my mind, in case anyone performed Legimency on me.

"I think that just about drove me insane. In my final year, I began seeing you everywhere. When I saw Muggleborns appearing and disappearing on the third floor and was compelled to report it, you appeared and chided me. I found that you appeared more and more even when I was passively trying to avoid all conflict. I found myself trying to help the quasi student army.

"But then hell broke loose and I saw you. The real you. Mind you, I was sane enough to tell a delusion from a real person. You represented all that was good to me. So I felt compelled to protect you. I tried to follow you and keep you safe, but I lost track of you. Then during the final battle I saw you, and I saw Alecto to your right. He was about to cast a Disintegration Curse and I, well I panicked."

"This part of the story I do remember," Hermione spoke finally. She had been captivated by Draco's struggle throughout the war. "The curse skimmed your head and we thought for sure you'd have died… but Faux came and got you. I suppose the bird truly did know a person's true nature."

"Good thing too," he joked. "I lived. I dreamt of all that was happening to me. It was like I was reliving my life again but that time, everything worked out. I was a twit until third year when we cleared it up that my behaviour was simply a form of childhood playground teasing. Then during Yule Ball, I saw you as a girl and it was like the fairy tale I always wanted with the war as its background. Be had it all.

"I was worried you no longer wanted me at first. But then I remembered that we never had the romance. I never took you out on a date, so I did just that. I cannot believe how odd it must have been for you. Having the boy who bullied you act that way and you played along. But of course you would do that. Life debt and you are the hero of the downtrodden. Who's more downtrodden than a delusional social pariah?"

"It…" she wanted to say it wasn't like that. But, "Perhaps at first, but I do love you now."

"I know, love. But at this point, it really doesn't matter much how we started as long as we are together now and there are no more secrets between us. So I'd like to apologize for trying to make you believe that I was still delusional when I woke up yesterday. I was afraid you'd leave and it was wrong of me to try to Slytherin my way into making you stay. But I had just walked out on you and being apart from you for three days, after all of our time together, I realised something. We could be living the biggest lie and I think I could be alright with it as long as it meant that I'd see you every morning and I'd be the man you kissed and smiled at.

I thought I was saving my bruised ego when I left you. I thought I was being rational. But my feelings for you aren't rational. Even now, I know I have treated you as an inferior and still cannot understand why you feel the way you do about me. I don't want to believe it because life has conditioned me to not believe in happy endings. I was afraid that one day, you would have had enough of being stuck with me and walked out.

When I walked out, I was angry that I felt so so strongly about you. My heart would skip a beat when you smiled at me and I would give up my magic for you. But you, it was all a lie for you. And that hurt me.

But on the second day, I was miserable. I didn't care what made you stay, pity, life debts, sense of righteousness, all that mattered was that you stayed. But I didn't have the face to return to you. So I drank… by the third day I'd created a fictional version of you. But she was bitter towards me. She called me a scum, a death eater, she voiced all of the things I hoped you'd never think of me… but you would be right to.

So when I woke up and you were there, looking so worried. I was in my childhood home and the love of my life was there. I thought of all those picture perfect moments I wanted. And it didn't matter anymore if you were lying, if I was delusional. I just wanted that life, for us. I wanted to be happy, screw what was real and what wasn't. If I could have one more day with you, looking up at me like I was the man you wanted, the man I wanted to be. I would lie and live my bloody happy fairy tale."

He chuckled there and Hermione felt a drop of tear. She looked up to see Draco's eyes tear up. She knew it must have taken a lot for him to admit this to her.

"You just wouldn't let me get my way," he teased her. "You just had to tell me the truth. Which I can't blame you. You are after all the moral compass between the two of us.'

"Draco…" she reprimanded him. "Would you have never told me the truth? How long would you pretend?"

"For as long as possible love," he told her honestly. "I was willing to lie though my teeth and go home with you. I would have hoped to Merlin you never got tired of me and leave. Perhaps I would have done the Slytherin thing and asked you to marry me within the year. Wizarding marriages are awfully had to get out of. Maybe one day, if I knew that you were truly happy and would stay, I would tell you."

"I am happy now," Hermione told him truthfully as she tipped her chin up to kiss him briefly. "I love you and I'm not leaving."

"Even after what I have told you?" he asked her vulnerably. He had planned on telling her everything. It was the only way to begin all over with her. It was the most advantageous route for him to take. But it had also been a big risk. She could have heard his story and bolted.

"Even after everything," she told him seriously. "I know what kind of man you are. I have lived with you. I know that you are capable of loving deeply. You are capable of goodness and kindness. That is all that matters. Perhaps you are afraid of getting hurt and trusting me, but we will work on that. Like normal couples, Draco. Despite all of this mess, we get a chance to be together. To start over clean."

"Tabula Rasa?" he asked her.

"Perhaps not an entirely clean slate," Hermione joked. "We had some pretty great times when we lived together. All of that, it was real to me. I had stopped pretending to care for you long ago."

"Lived?" he asked her with furrowed brows.

"I… I wasn't sure if you'd still want to live together. With all of this," she told him reluctantly.

"I'd like for us to live together," he replied honestly, again open before her and vulnerable for her rejection.

"I'd like that too," she agreed.

Draco pressed his cheek against her head and hummed happily. Perhaps things would start looking up for him now. With all that has happened in the past week, he would not believe this was the conclusion. He was happy, truly happy and so was Hermione.

He smiled as he saw the glow of the trees dim. It was the darkest hour now. Just before dawn. He closed him eyes peacefully, with the knowledge that in a few short hours, the sun would come up. And he would still be here, with Hermione in his arms. Wonders never ceased.

LA FIN

A/N: Hey people reading this! I guess this is it. This is the end. Thanks for sticking around through my story. This is the longest thing I have ever written and will probably ever write. But who knows! Again thank you so much to everyone for reading and commenting. If no one read this I would have given up ages ago. You guys are the best :)

Cheers!

I hope we meet again at another story. Though give me a few days to make up another corny/cliche/over used plot :P