I am an awful person. I put all my fanfiction stories on hold to work on my own original works...and guess how many of those are finished? Yes...zero! But they're coming along nicely. And one of my characters is based on my personal view of Malfoy. So enjoy what is the final chapter of The Date. I feel it sums everything up nicely. And was written in about an hour. ENJOY!

Graduation morning was suddenly upon them. Neither of the boys had seen hide nor hair of their respective partners. Having realized within the first day that the girls were utilizing the various secret passageways of Hogwarts. And while Draco knew Hermione had practically locked herself in the library to study for finals, he avoided it at all costs. Even resorting to sending younger Slytherin's into the library for him.

Harry was just as miserable, praying that a week of planning would pay off for him. He knew Ginny had a temper and she was stubborn as a bull moose. He was also sure, however, that she would eventually forgive him, a week was pushing it though. Terrified that he may have lost her for real, Harry put everything he had into a last ditch effort to make Ginny Weasley his.

Draco met him outside the Great Hall doors. Harry hugged the robe tighter around him and pleaded with Draco.

"Really? Is this what it's come down to?" Harry asked. "I have better things to do, like fight with Voldemort."

"You can't really do that until after graduation, so you may as well do something to pass the time."

"Can I just say it?"

"How would that be funny?"

Harry glared at him. "You still haven't told me what you're going to do."

"I'm going to turn my back on everything I know in the hopes that one girl, who has every reason to curse me into oblivion, will consent to be with me forever. Which could be a week depended on the war."

"Neither of you is going to die, Malfoy, don't even think it."

"What if?"

Harry steeled himself and put his hand on the door, "Then make it a hell of a week."

Harry's senses were on high alert. The door creaking open, he was sure, was the loudest sound he had ever heard. But seconds later, as every head in the Great Hall turned to look at him, he realized there was nothing louder than pure and absolute silence.

Ginny's face shone to him like a beacon, without giving himself time to chicken out, Harry walked toward her. He paused in front of her, but only to offer her a smile. Then, he stepped up on the bench, and then onto the table. He reached his hand out to her, she shook her head.

"Please, Ginny."

"No, I think I'll stay right here if that's alright by you."

Ron appeared suddenly, heaving his sister onto the table before taking her spot.

Harry took a deep breath before locking eyes with her.

"This is all for you, Ginny."

Then to the shock and amazement of everyone in the entire Great Hall, Harry Potter shrugged the cloak off.

Opting out of wearing a diaper, Harry stood in a pair of white boxer shorts. Wrapped across his chest was a quiver of arrows and he held a bow in his hand. He sunk to his knees in front of her.

If any of the teachers had decided to stand up and intervene, they would have found themselves unable, due to being stuck to their seats. Draco put his wand away, and sat back to watch the show.

Harry Potter looked up at Ginny Weasley with nothing but pure adoration in his eyes.

Her hair is so red, it rivals the flame

A heroine at Quidditch, she's queen of the game.

I screwed up, didn't want to part,

She's really divine, I wish she'd be mine,

The little girl who holds my heart.

Ginny glared at him. "Did you write that?" she asked.

"Unfortunately for everyone in this room, yes I did."

"So you think getting undressed in front of everyone in Hogwarts and reciting a poem is supposed to make me forgive you?"

Harry hadn't thought things would go this way, in fact he was certain she was supposed to turn into a weeping pile of goo and hug and kiss him.

"I thought it would be a start."

Ginny looked seriously about the room, knowing if she looked any lower than Harry's neck she was likely to burst into hysterics. Her eyes landed on Cho Chang, who looked simply murderous. Ginny smiled at that.

"It's an excellent start, Mr. Potter."

Then came the kissing.

Commencement for the graduating seventh years wasn't until seven. Hermione managed to avoid her shared common room for a majority of the day. Taking refuge in visiting Hagrid and running through the Forbidden Forest one last time. But dinner rolled around, and Hermione knew she'd have to return soon.

Her feet lead her there, muttering the password she'd changed back, realizing that Malfoy would need to get his things as well. Until breakfast that morning, she hadn't seen him since she'd told him to get lost. Something she regretted as soon as she'd slammed the portrait.

She'd waited a week. Seven entire days to see if he'd do anything, offer her some sign that he was sorry or that he was planning to fix this. But as she entered the common room, she was horrified to find his things were all packed and neatly organized near the fireplace, where the House Elves would collect them.

He had his back to her, staring out the window as per usual. She thought about saying something, anything. But instead she bit her tongue, and went to pack.

It took all of ten minutes by magic. And considering that she wasn't a superficial girl, getting showered and ready for the ceremony still gave her thirty minutes to kill before she had to leave. Levitating her belongings, she nervously headed to the common room.

He was still at the window, he didn't look at her.

She sat down in her chair, suddenly not caring if her robes were wrinkled. She hoped she'd look awful so she felt somewhat below him. It would give clarity to their situation. If he could just be the bigoted prat that he had been before, if she had never seen the good in him, she could still pretend that he was awful.

He moved suddenly, shifted and stood. "You ready?" he knew they still had twenty minutes.

The tension that had been brewing the last week, the last year, suddenly snapped. She looked up at him, unbelieving.

"That's it?" she asked him.

"What's it?" he asked, confused. And amazed that she spoke to him.

"We're just going to graduate."

"That's the point of graduation, to graduate. Leave. Go away."

She let out a dry laugh, bordering on a sob. "I…I thought…"

"What did you think, Granger?"

Hermione stood and walked to his place at the window. Her hands rose to press against the warm glass. "It doesn't matter."

"Tell me?" he had no right to ask anything from her, but he had to know.

"I thought…after Harry's…show today. I thought maybe you had something planned too. Something to prove…prove something. It doesn't matter."

"Hermione…I didn't…there's nothing I can do, is there?" he said quietly. "I could buy you jewels but you wouldn't take them. I could offer you words, but you wouldn't believe them. I could give you myself but you'd always wonder if there was an ulterior motive. I've lost you and I have to deal with it."

She snapped again, to anger this time, supernovas would have been jealous of the anger which possessed Hermione Granger.

"You didn't even try!" she shouted at him. Her balled fist pounded against the glass, shattering it. "You told me to be mad at you! You told me to hate you and curse you! You didn't explain or try to make it okay!"

"Will you just wait…" he looked worriedly at her bleeding hands. She moved toward him, to walk past him, he grabbed her. Her fist reared back again, catching him across the jaw. Her blood smeared across his cheek.

"Nothing! That's what I should have expected from you, isn't it? Absolutely nothing!" She stalled at the portrait. "You didn't lose me then, Malfoy. But you did just now."

The chairs were set up next to the Black Lake and the students sat in alphabetical order. Sparkling the grass with reds, yellows, blues and green. Draco and Hermione sat side by side on the stage with Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers.

The diploma's were handed out, speeches were made, except for one.

Draco stood to give the farewell address to the students. It was to be a culmination of everything they'd been through together, he figured. That wasn't what he planned to talk about, of course, but it was nice to know which rules he was breaking.

His parents were not in attendance. But his speech was going to be all over the Prophet by morning. Hermione knew what he was going to say, and decided to tune him out. After all, she'd found a copy of his rule-abiding speech in the common room.

Or what she was supposed to think was his speech.

"Seven years. It seemed like eternity when I took my first steps on the Hogwarts Express. At eleven, seventeen seems ages away. The idea that I'd be leaving someday never crossed my mind. But the years flew by, as they do when you're not watching carefully. And the carefully constructed walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry fell down.

"We've been through Quidditch cups and Slytherin's heir. We saw the escape of a murderer, and saw his name cleared. We saw Voldemort return. We watched friends fall, and hoped that ours weren't next. Some of us have been close to the battle than others, and some will become closer still, but it will touch us all."

Draco took a deep breath.

"But I don't want to warn you of the danger. I don't want to yammer on about how we should all ban together and fight the fight. You've heard it. You know it. We'll do it, because the walls are down now and we're all in this together."

Hermione was listening now, this wasn't what she'd read.

"You think…you think you know everything when you're as old as we are. And you think you've got forever, but you don't. The war is upon us and there will be losses. But there will not be regrets. Think back a week, a month, maybe even years. What was your biggest regret at Hogwarts? Fix it. I'm challenging you, class, to find your greatest regret. Maybe it's a test, maybe something you said, maybe something you did to hurt someone else, find them. Apologize. Don't leave here wondering what could have happened, don't spend the rest of your lives (however long you have) in any sort of unhappiness or anger. Fix your life."

He turned then, to stare at Hermione.

"I know what my biggest regret will be if I don't deal with it now. So don't let Draco Malfoy do something you're afraid to do, fix things, apologize." he walked over to her slowly and tugged her hand. His voice remained magnified. "Hermione Granger, I love you. I've been entranced by you since first year and it's only gotten more intense this last year. Being so close to you, being able to call you my friend was the most important thing in my world. And then I found out you wanted me too.

"I got scared. I couldn't let myself be happy, I couldn't let myself just do something…for myself. I tricked Theo into making a bet, the biggest mistake of my life and one I'm rectifying now. I kept the money," he pulled out the same bag and put it in her hand. There definitely weren't fifty galleons in it. "And I spent it on something."

He sank to one knee.

"B-but…" her eyes went wide.

He laughed. "I already asked your father."

"Draco…"

"Hermione Granger, I thought I was happy. I was rich, handsome and had the world at my fingertips. And then I found you. And now, I would, and I am, giving it all up for you. As long as you're in my life, I have all that I need. I'm asking you, no. I'm begging you to marry me, to be mine forever and beyond because I cannot go another day without you in my life. And just knowing you're in the world isn't good enough anymore, you have to let me be yours." He shook the ring out of the bag and into her hand. It was up to her now.

Draco forgot how to breathe.

Hermione gasped at the ring. It was petite and perfect for her slim hand. White and pink gold with three small diamonds. She tried it on.

"You did have a plan…when did you buy this?"

"A week ago."

"And you waited…"

"I wanted to make sure you were just as miserable without me as I was without you."

"And?"

"Say yes, and you won't have to be miserable ever again."

"Then I guess I have to say yes."

"You don't have to say anything," he said, standing and pulling her to him.

"How about 'yes'?" Hermione smirked.

"Fair enough."

The roar of cheers that shook the grounds put Quidditch games to shame. The students, parents, even the faculty cheered.

Hermione and Draco were married three days later in a small chapel. They lived everyday as if it were their last. Harry Potter won the Great War on the grounds of Hogwarts herself. And though some were lost in the battle, many more were saved.

Ginny Potter and her husband Harry live near the Burrow. Their children are nine and seven. And Ginny tells them of their fathers greatest achievement whenever she gets the opportunity. Not defeating Voldemort, but dressing up like Cupid and winning her heart.

Luna Zambini and her husband Blaise live in London. Gregory Goyle and Pansy began keeping in touch after their fifth year school reunion, no one could be happier for them than Draco. Vincent Crabbe took over his fathers Apothecary and has yet to settle down.

Ron Weasley brought the Chudley Cannons out of their losing streak and won his way into the hearts of teenage witches everywhere.

Hermione Malfoy and her husband Draco live in a modest house near the Burrow as well. They have three children, all attending Hogwarts now. They're all in Gryffindor. Hermione kisses his marred forearm every day, to remind him of the risks he took to bring their family together. They'll be celebrating their twentieth anniversary.