A/N: Surprised to hear from me? Two long years it has been since I have written. I would like to start off my apologizing for taking so long to finish up the story. I hope you all like it, I will say, it is rather simple, given the complex plot of the earlier chapters. I will be writing one-shots, but I don't think I will take on another chaptered story like this. It would have to be an amazing plot bunny! I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did. Look out for any other works I will have…and don't forget to review!

Harry sank into the chair nearest to him and buried his head in his hands. He never expected Hermione to take the news the way she did, but as an afterthought he figured he didn't know the depth of her emotions.

"You deserve it, Potter." Draco muttered nastily to him. He looked at the two boys with a mix of pity and disgust, "She doesn't need enemies with friends like the lot of you."

Draco's heart ached to run after Hermione and comfort her. He knew she felt betrayed and abandoned by the two people in her life she thought she could trust. But the right thing do at this point was to stay with Harry and Ron and finally clear the air to avoid future confrontation.

Ron looked crestfallen, "What are we going to do now?"

"We?" Draco turned to him and folded his arms. "You and your boyfriend here may have just severed the ties to one of the most amazing which of our life times." They both looked at him with blank expressions and hollowed insides, they knew he was right. "What I am going to do is talk to her and try to comfort her. Hermione is a very reasonable person, unfortunately, she will see your good, albeit, stupid intentions." he added as he walked towards the Headmaster's door.

Harry watched Draco leave the Headmaster's office with a mixture of emotions so powerful he almost forgot to breathe. They really did betray her. Who were they to keep something like that from her? They were indeed selfish.

"I hate sharing her, Harry." Ron said almost in a whisper. "I hate that she needed him when she had us."

Harry looked at his best mate and sighed, "Her child was conceived with love, not force. You saw the memories in the pensieve. Had that mad man not erased Hermione's memory, she would be with Malfoy now."

"Maybe it happened for the best, Harry. She was too young to have kids." Ron responded desperately, trying to put the blame on anyone but themselves.

Harry got up and walked over to the Headmaster's desk, "And therein lies our problems. We don't control Hermione's life, Ron. It was supposed to be her decision."

Ron ran his hands through his hair, "You're right. What do you suppose we do now?"

Harry picked up the ancient silver basin and carefully placed it back in the cabinets. He turned to Ron as he closed the door and quietly replied, "The future of our friendship now belongs in the hands of Malfoy."

Draco calmly left the Headmaster's Office and quietly shut the door. He waited patiently as the revolving stairs descended to the school hallway. To any student passing, it looked like Draco just came out from a meeting with Professor Dumbledore, and no one gave much as a second glance to Draco's ever present scowl.

He strided down the hallway, ignorant of the people he was knocking into, or the shouts of greetings coming from his peers. He was too deep in thought. He needed to find Hermione before she mad any hasty decisions regarding her friendship with Potter and Weasley. Mentally, he thought it would be a grand idea if the said two would jump off the Astronomy Tower.

He thought back to the past few months of utter torment he put himself through, and for what, respecting the wishes of her closest friends. His scowl deepened more into his handsome face and he remembered the look of utter bewilderment when she put all the pieces together. Would she have him? Could he betray his family for her? His heart screamed in approval at the last question, but if it was his love for Hermione or his new found hatred of The Dark Lord's cause, he did not know.

He made his way into the Library to try and find her. He would look from the most obvious to the most unlikely place, even if it took him all night. In his worry and perseverance to find Hermione, Draco didn't stop ask himself a second time if he could give up his family's legacy for her, he did the moment he kissed her.

She was livid. All of them. Every single last one of them lied to her.

She couldn't stop the thoughts racing through her mind, she could feel it pounding in her temples. She wanted to give her best friends the benefit of the doubt, but it hurt so very much.

Hermione threw herself on the grass, clasping her hands over her mouth; she allowed herself a good cry.

When she raced out of the Headmasters Office, she didn't know where she wanted to go to think. Ron and Harry, and maybe even Draco would be scouring every crevice of Hogwarts looking for her, to apologize, or explain, or whatever it was boys did when they were sorry. But she did not feel like facing them, not now. She was afraid if she saw their apologetic faces; she would crumble and forgive them. Hermione was most afraid she would hold a hostile resentment towards her two best friends, and she needed to think very hard if their relationship was worth salvaging.

Then there was Draco.

"Merlin…" she moaned, and threw her forearm over her face. What was she going to do there? What future would there be for him and her? Could she be responsible for Draco's disinheritance? Surely, Draco's father will never welcome her into the most ancient house of Malfoy.

Hermione lay in the grass, not taking mind of the lady bugs crawling in her hair. Hidden ten minutes away from Hagid's cabin, Professor Snape once sent her, Lavender, and Neville to pick flowers from the Hawthorn tree. It very was beautiful; there was a small pond, which was nearly concealed by the full bloomed cherry blossoms. It was a type of place you get married in. With those thoughts of romance in her head, and the sun's warmth on her body, her last thoughts were of Draco as she fell into an exhausted sleep.

It was dinner and she was no where to be found. Draco spent his entire day scouring the halls and classrooms of Hogwarts. He even took advantage of his Head Boy's status and entered the teacher's lounge, but Hermione was no where to be found.

Rather than starve himself, he decided to have dinner before continuing his search.

"May I ask why the Golden Duo is staring at you?" Blaise mumbled out the side of his mouth.

"I will tell you the full story later on tonight." Draco replied, not making eye contact with his friend, "I showed her everything, she is right angry with that lot."

Any other person may have gasped at such news, but Blaise's reaction to it was the reason Draco kept him as a friend. He kept his gaze strait and didn't betray his emotions. At a table full of ambitious Slytherins, the littlest of gossip would be used maliciously.

"What are your plans?" Blaise asked before spooning a bit of pudding in his mouth.

"I will try to find her," Draco responded, piling his own plate with food, "but I have been looking all day. I never realized just how enormous this place is."

"If I see her, I will be sure to put a Full Body Bind on her and levitate her to your rooms." Blaise promised, his face deathly serious.

Draco snorted into his pumpkin juice for the first time since he was four years old. He grinned at his friend," That wouldn't be necessary, but thank you."

Blaise broke into a smile, and Draco saw it falter a bit. He turned to the entrance of the Great Hall and he saw Hermione. She did not walk with her usual "get out of my way Granger" stride, it was more tentative. Draco itched to go to her, but he needed to see how this would play out between the three friends. He watched her approach Harry and Ron, she bent down and whispered to both of them, and gave them reassuring hugs. She got up and started to make her way towards the Slytherin table.

"Draco, the Headmaster would like to see both of us in his office immediately." Hermione reported, her gaze nonchalant.

"Lead the way, Granger." He sniped. She visibly stiffened, but she did not retort. He only hoped she realized how important appearances were at his table.

As the Head boy and girl walked out of the Great Hall together, they had a respectable amount of distance between them, and their silence was deemed unfriendly by their peers. The Gryffindors always applauded their Head Girl for always being respectable even though she had to deal with the Death Eater's son. The Slytherins hissed their approval as well. Who better than Lucius Malfoy's heir, a Lieutenant in the Dark Lords army to lead the next generation of Slytherins. No one could even start to imagine the chaotic emotions effecting the said people.

"We need to talk." Hermione broke the silence by speaking first. The halls were empty as all the students were in the Great Hall having dinner. "I used Professor Dumbledore as an excuse; I know how malicious your fellow classmates can be."

Joy infused every cell in Draco's body, but he willed himself not to show it. He was afraid if he spoke she would run away from him again.

"Let's go to our common room, no one can disturb us there." Draco suggested, trying his best to keep his voice neutral.

Hermione nodded and they changed their route to go back to their common room. She was nervous, but she didn't exactly pin point why. Did she want a relationship with Draco? Before she could answer her self, Draco was holding the portrait open to allow her to go in first.

"No one other than the professors are to disturb us, that includes Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley." Draco commanded the young woman on the painting. She flashed him a knowing smile and nodded.

When he stepped into the common room, Hermione was sitting in very large chair by the fireplace. She had a fleeting thought how romantic it would have been has there actually been a fire, but it was June, and her flair for the dramatic would have to be put aside.

"Please let me speak first." Hermione implored on him. He sat across from her, and she had his undivided attention.

"I am going to put all my cards on the table." she started slowly, she was embarrassed to have to show herself like this, but it was the only way to get everything set right, "What I saw in the pensieve was real love. I can't deny what I saw; your true feelings for me. That aside, I have to think about this from a logical point of view."

She looked up at him and gave him a sorrowful look, "Are you ready to be disinherited for me, Draco? To give up your family? Your legacy? Your status?"

He sighed and kneeled in front of Hermione. "I gave that all up the moment I saw you in that cream colored dress, Hermione." He rested his forehead on her knees for a moment then looked back up at her, "I love you. I did not know there was another life for me outside service to the Dark Lord. With you, I see marriage, I see children. I see a future other than perishing before I am 25 years old."

She ran her hands through his soft hair, "Draco, you can't really believe that our marriage and any child of our union will be welcomed. You will be an outcast."

"Then so be it." He replied stubbornly, "To be outcasted from what? Frigid politeness? Service to a mad man?" He shook his head as if to shake out the images of Lord Voldermort, "I don't want any of that anymore."

Hermione looked into his handsome face, and even though she was only 17 years old, her heart ached for the loss of their child. It would have been such a beautiful baby. "Tell me one more time, Draco."

"I love you, Hermione." Draco mumbled into her lips as he pulled her in for a kiss. He held the back of her head to control the depth of the kiss, he did not want to scare her. When he felt her arms going around his neck and her body pressing up on his, he knew she was his for all his days. At that moment, Draco became a blood traitor, and he loved every moment of it.

Hermione felt the tears pouring from her eyes as he kissed her, but it didn't matter, she savored the weight of him on top of her, she was reminded of falling to sleep in the warm sunshine, with lady bugs in her hair.