"I feel awful for feeling good about this," Ginny pouted. "We never wanted Malfoy for her. She could do a hell of a lot better."

"While I'd like to agree, it's not about what we want for her," Harry reminded. "It's her life, her decision."

"A decision that she doesn't have anymore," Ginny rightly pointed out. She turned her head slightly to the left, frowned for a moment, and prodded her brother with an elbow to his arm. "Ron? Are you okay?"

There was a slow blink of recognition from Ron, but not much else. He had never used a time-turner before, and so the thought versus the physicality of doing so was a novelty. He vividly remembered being in the Department of Mysteries with Luna, but the moment he had pressed the jewel on the ring everything had changed. His surroundings had taken on a blurry disposition, shapes and colors morphing, his body going through changes he thought impossible. Yes, Ron had only gone back five years, but it appeared that his health had declined within that time. Or maybe it was just the past few days that had taken its toll. Whichever had been the culprit, Ron's body felt strong and his muscles were relaxed. It was only his thoughts of things to come that were raging.

"Ron, mate," Harry addressed as he waved a hand in front of Ron's face. "Ginny's talking to you."

"I have to find Hermione." Ron shot out of his seat, his head swaying as he stood. He heard his friend and sister saying his name, their arms in his periphery as though they were reaching out to steady him. Had he been stumbling? Regardless, he shooed them away with a messy push of his hands and walked through the flat he now fully recognized as Harry's. They had been in the kitchen, and Ron left the room of the home that Harry and Ginny would move out of two years later and sought out Hermione. She would be in the spare bedroom, sitting on the bed, crying her heart out, and when Ron reached it, he remained by the closed door and just listened.

Ron didn't have to open the bedroom door to know what he would see. This moment from his past he could never forget. It was the day that he knew that he could finally have his shot at Hermione since that blond nuisance was out of the way. He had paid no nevermind to how intently her sobbing had rocked her body nor how much her hands had trembled. He had been, in essence, oblivious to her heartbreak. It was only now that Ron had finally opened the door and was seeing these things for the second time that he was able to properly acknowledge them. It was only possible because he was feeling the same things from a life that no longer existed.

Ron sighed and took a step forward. A creak in the floor alerted Hermione to his presence, and she looked at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, and it was a miracle that she was able to see out of them. Hermione sniffled and rubbed at her eyes.

"Here to gloat?" Hermione asked, a touch of anger in her voice. "Here to say 'I told you so?' Oh, wait, better yet, something along the lines of telling me that it never would've worked anyway. Yes, that sounds better."

Ron rocked back on his heels for a moment before closing the door behind him. When he faced Hermione again she wasn't crying. She was tense and on edge as though whatever was said next would break her. Again, Ron knew exactly what she was feeling.

"I wasn't going to say any of that, Hermione."

"No?" Hermione's shoulders dropped slightly, although the rest of her body was still on high alert. Her arms slowly slid up her arms to cradle herself as she carefully continued the conversation. "What were you going to say then?"

"Ask, more accurately," Ron swallowed. "I just… I have to know… Why do you love him?"

The rest of Hermione's tension faded. Her arms had flopped to her side, her eyes wide and lips slightly parted. "Why? You've never wanted to know anything of the sort before."

"You've never been this hurt before."

Ron watched an internal battle wage in Hermione's brain as her gaze redirected to the floor, her bottom lip taken between her teeth. Several seconds passed before she finally freed her mouth and motioned for him to sit next to her on the bed. Ron sat beside her, and he realized that this was the first time that he had been this close to her in days. Despite loving her still, it felt strange. Disconnected even.

"People think it's easy to explain why they love someone," Hermione sighed. "It's not though. Love is a feeling, and I feel…safe with Draco. When he looks at me I just melt. When he smiles my day is instantly better. When he holds me? I could stay there forever. Ron, he… He's home for me. That is why I love him."

"...A love worth risking everything for, yeah?" Ron replied softly. He could feel tears brimming his eyes, but he batted them down as he watched the love his life nod, her own tears streaming down her face as before.

"Yes," she choked. Hermione finally looked at Ron again, and although she was crying, her face held rage. Ron could see the witch from five years into the future, vengeful and determined, her voice chilling him as she added, "I would do anything to be with Draco."

Ron felt sick to his stomach. Bile rose to his throat, but no further, as a loud commotion from the front of the flat could be heard.

"Where is she? Where's Hermione?!"

"Malfoy!" Ginny shouted, "Will you calm down and tell us what's-!"

"Hermione?!"

"Draco!" Hermione called out to him. She had sprung to her feet the moment she heard his voice and left Ron on the mattress. Ron, however, didn't move, but he could still hear everything.

"It's broken," Draco said. "Panted" was more like it, and Ron could envision the blond's face full of wonder and disbelief. "We were all there -my parents, Astoria and hers, our solicitor… He had the contract and it was broken."

"How could it be broken? You can't break a blood bond!"

"I don't know, and I don't care. I don't have to marry her, but I am getting married."

Ron could imagine the confusion on Hermione's face, but the gasp that came from her confirmed what he thought was happening. The brunette's ecstatic cry of "Yes!" was unmistakable, and Ron decided then that he needed to leave. He took out his wand and disapparated from the bedroom onto a familiar doorstep. He didn't know if Luna would be home right now, but he prayed fervently that she was, and he damn near sobbed when she eventually opened the door.

"What's wrong, Ron?" Luna immediately asked. He figured he looked a mess right about now, the salt of his tears teasing the edges of his lips. He didn't even know that his tears had actually spilled.

Ron ignored her question, licked his lips, and plowed on with, "I need a favor. I also need you not to ask why I'm asking for it."

Luna was unreadable as always, but Ron focused on her periwinkle eyes that often held insight into what the blonde was thinking.

"Tea?" Luna offered rather than inquired, and she left the door open for him as she headed into the kitchen. Ron closed the door after him and followed her. "What's the favor?"

"I need you to erase five years of memories from my mind."

Luna's back had been facing him as she prepared the kettle, but she had turned abruptly at his words. Her mouth had been fixed to question him, but she didn't. Instead, she was analyzing him. Ron felt naked under her stare, guilty even, and dropped his head like a scolded child.

"You're hurting," she announced.

Light feet, so it seemed. Ron hadn't heard her move, but her voice was directly in his ear, and he looked up to find her standing beside him.

"Can you do it?"

Luna frowned. She didn't confirm or deny, but instead her hand ran through his hair, frowning even further when more of Ron's tears joined the others at the bottom of his chin.

"I can take away the memories," Luna nodded, "but that won't necessarily take away the pain from here."

Ron followed the movement of Luna's hand from his head to his chest, settling neatly over his heart. He sighed bitterly and breathed out a haggard, "I know...but it's still a start."

Luna stood with her hand on Ron's heart for several seconds, counting the rhythmic beats, ruefully determining that at a faster rate he may have had a heart attack. She slowly transferred her left hand to his chest instead of her right and called for her wand from within the house. Once it was in her hand, she coaxed him with a gentle rub.

"Close your eyes, Ron, and tell me exactly what you want me to erase."

Draco had never had the "luxury" of having his heart broken before. When his parents had informed him of the blood bond marriage he had with Astoria, he had felt it then. The only difference is that it hadn't been a break. It had been the complete destruction of every daydream he had of spending the rest of his life with Hermione. He didn't know what hurt him more, the look of devastation on Hermione's face when he had told her, or standing in a room with his parents, people who were supposed to love him, who had shattered his heart with blood and magic.

"Angry" was too soft of a term to describe how Draco felt towards his parents. "Disgusted" was yet another ill-fitting word to show his distaste at how happy Astoria and her parents had been that the years-old agreement was now coming to fruition. Draco had been numb, and the sound of blood rushing had tuned out whatever small talk the people around him had been trying to make. The only thing that had brought Draco to awareness had been the frantic entrance of his family's solicitor who had immediately begun apologizing and exclaiming that he had no idea how this could've happened.

The "this" had been the marriage contract. To Draco's knowledge, it was supposed to be written in stone, literally. What his solicitor was holding now was nothing more than a limp piece of parchment. Draco was now lucid, and the dismal future that he had been heading into had suddenly disappeared. Without warning, he ran. He fled from Malfoy Manor, on his way to Hermione, before abruptly stopping and picking up the engagement ring he had been keeping in his vault and making his journey to her.

Draco was with Hermione now at her home. They had spent the rest of the evening and the majority of the night thinking of what their next steps should be. He would be moving out of Malfoy Manor asap, but to where? Hermione's flat? A brand new place of their own? A small, intimate wedding was a given, but where and when? That last bit had been decided upon before falling asleep, and it was the reason why Draco was too jittery to stay that way. They had agreed to do it the very next day at the Ministry with whatever two witnesses they would provide.

"No one and nothing is ever coming between us again," Draco said softly as he watched Hermione sleep. She let out a soft, happy sigh in her unconscious state and snuggled closer to him. Draco moved to cuddle her, an arm gently raised to wrap around her waist, when his ear caught a noise. It was slight, but still striking enough to make Draco furrow his brow and sit up in bed. He sat completely still and attempted to tune out the obnoxiously loud ticking the clock in Hermione's bedroom was making. Easier said than done, surprisingly, but in between the echoing ticks he heard a creaking and a click.

Draco had wriggled away from Hermione and pushed the blankets from off of him as he strained to hear more. That had most definitely been the opening and closing of the front door. Was he now hearing…footsteps? Draco picked up his wand and carefully made his way to the bedroom door. This door, too, made noises when opened and closed, but Draco cast a Silencing Charm on it so that he wouldn't alert whoever the intruder was to his presence.

Out in the hallway, his back pressed against the wall, Draco listened for more movement. Footsteps were clearer now, not to mention the muffled sound of a whimper and the movement of an end table the uninvited guest had bumped into. It appeared to be just one person, and if that was the case, Draco was certain that this was someone with a vendetta rather than for a robbery.

Draco had crept quickly and quietly closer to the living room. He had been prepared to cast every offensive spell he could think of when he spotted a very familiar body shape and mannerisms. It shouldn't have, but his wand arm faltered as he called out the infiltrator by name.

"Astoria?"

Draco flicked the living room lightswitch to see the witch better. Astoria looked neither surprised nor concerned that she had been found, and her lips curled into a sneer of disappointment and disgust as she laid her eyes on him.

"Astoria," Draco addressed tentatively, "what are you doing here?"

"How did you do it?" Astoria asked. Draco didn't mind that she had dodged the question, because now he was wondering what exactly she was referring to.

"I don't understand what–"

"The bond!" she hissed. "How did you break it?"

Draco didn't miss the way her fingers tightened its hold on her wand. He became hyper aware of his own that had been previously dangling between his fingers. He secured it before wetting his lips and attempting to appease the obviously very angry woman.

"I don't know what happened to it," he answered honestly. "I was just as shocked as you to see it broken."

"And thrilled," Astoria scoffed. Her eyes crossed to the hallway that Draco stood by and over his shoulder. On instinct, he took a step back and to the side to block her view and, quite possibly, a charge down the hall. Astoria laughed in a way akin Bellatrix, and it made the blond's skin itch.

"My parents told me that you were enamored with a mudblood," she casually added. A step towards him had been taken as well, and although she was still at quite a distance from him, Draco was still on high alert. "They spoke with your parents who assured them, who then assured me, that it was just a fling. That it meant nothing."

Astoria produced a tut-like scoff as she shook her head and made yet another advance. Draco didn't move this time, for the further back he went, the closer to Hermione they would be. There was a look of murder in Astoria's eyes, and he wasn't sure just yet whose blood she was out for.

"You love her, don't you?" Less angry and more curious was this question from the witch, accompanied with a soft tilt of her head, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth, and a sag in her shoulders. However, when Draco gave a nod of confirmation, everything about her changed in the blink of an eye. He was right to put up a Shield Charm after his words because the curse that had come out of Astoria's wand, ricocheted off, redirected and completely decimated Hermione's couch to ashes, would have surely been the end of him.

While Draco would ordinarily hold his ground in a duel, this was something else entirely. Astoria's everyday poised and elegant demeanor had drifted into chaos. Fighting with someone like this would only lead to a devastating outcome, which, it was horrifying to say, could happen to any of the three people in the home. A quick blasting curse from Draco hit Astoria squarely in the stomach, but he didn't stick around to see how hard she had hit into the wall behind her. Instead, he conjured bricks to fill up the doorway between the hall and the living room and hauled his arse back the bedroom.

"Draco?" Hermione sleepily called. She had already been stirring awake and was sitting up in bed and rubbing at her eyes. "Draco, what's-"

"Disapparate! Now!" Draco shouted at her. That definitely took the tiredness out of the brunette as she watched him blast the hinges off the door, toss it alongside of the bed, and fill the doorway with bricks. A heavy bang from down the hall rocked the flat, and Draco knew that it was only a matter of seconds before this barrier was blown to bits just the same.

Draco felt his arm being tugged, and he turned around in confusion as he found Hermione, wand out, and urging him to stand as far away from the door as possible. "Hermione, you need to-!"

"If you're not going anywhere, then neither am I," she declared, and Draco briefly smiled before a deafening blast sent debris of brick and wall scattered throughout the bedroom. Hermione had quickly conjured a shield to protect themselves from the debris, and when the smoke cleared they found Astoria climbing through the massive, jagged hole that she had created.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione questioned as she looked on the woman. She had never met Astoria, although she had heard about her. As she analyzed this deadly intruder, the things that Hermione had heard had been far from what she was seeing.

"You ruined everything," Astoria said with a shake of her head, "and if I can't have what I want, neither can you."

The tip of Astoria's wand lit a bright green. This was it. Nothing could block the Killing Curse, and so Draco grabbed Hermione's wrist in an attempt to disapparate when he realized that he couldn't. Time seemed to slow then, and he did the only thing that he could think to do: step in front of the curse. Unfortunately, Hermione had the same thought, and in a moment of unbelievable strength, she had managed to push him from in front of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the jet of light to hit her, frightfully aware that she would soon know what the afterlife felt like. The only thing was, she didn't feel anything. Was she dead already? Had it happened that quickly?

A terrifying thought passed her mind that Draco had stepped in front of her again, and yes, when Hermione opened her eyes, she saw that he had. And yet, he wasn't dead. Even Draco was beyond shocked that he was still standing as he patted his body to make sure that he was still there. Hermione's eyes immediately widened in recognition and moved pass him to find Astoria near the doorway and on the floor. Her eyes were open, mouth agape, and her hand still in proper shape to hold her wand, but said instrument on the floor near her.

"It rebounded," Hermione heard Draco say from behind her. "The curse rebounded."

"…Yes, it did," she breathlessly replied as she kneeled down beside the dead witch. "It rebounded because…we tried to save each other. It's Harry all over again."

"Merlin. Is anyone even going to believe that?"

"They'll have to. If Aurors check our wands, they'll see that only hers cast the curse." Hermione sighed before getting up from the floor and sitting on the edge of the bed. She felt it dip beside her and soon after Draco's arms enveloping her and pulling her close. "I still can't believe that she tried to kill us."

Draco wished that he could say the same. He distinctly remembered how he felt when his parents told him about his pending forced marriage. How his mind had raced, and how he had begun thinking of every way possible that he could rectify this wrong. No, Astoria hadn't been right, but he still understood.

"That's the thing, Hermione," Draco shrugged, "you can never underestimate what a person will do for love."

Author's note: IT'S DONE! This is also the closest to a Ron/Luna I ever thought I'd get, and you know what? I actually don't mind it lol. Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'm slowly working my way through my WIPs to finish them. Both Need and The Calm to Her Storm are my "big boys" (for lack of a better term) that are both very close to finishing. Wish me luck! I'm on FB and Tumblr if you'd like to say hello! :D

-WP *hugs*